Monday, January 4, 2010

The Pictures of War You Aren’t Supposed to See


The Pictures of War You Aren’t Supposed to See By Chris Hedges

"Look beyond the nationalist cant used to justify war. Look beyond the seduction of the weapons and the pornography of violence. Look beyond Barack Obama’s ridiculous rhetoric about finishing the job or fighting terror. Focus on the evil of war. War begins by calling for the annihilation of the others but ends ultimately in self-annihilation. It corrupts souls and mutilates bodies. It destroys homes and villages and murders children on their way to school. It grinds into the dirt all that is tender and beautiful and sacred. It empowers human deformities—warlords, Shiite death squads, Sunni insurgents, the Taliban, al-Qaida and our own killers—who can speak only in the despicable language of force. War is a scourge. It is a plague. It is industrial murder. And before you support war, especially the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, look into the hollow eyes of the men, women and children who know it."


In this "war", there are 2 kinds of people: those who feel and experience it personally, and everyone else. Here at home, we go to work, shop and do all the things we usually do, without even so much as the smell of death in the air.

Photos can only do such much, but even these have been kept from the public, as Chris Hedges points out. Are people so stupid, so ignorant, that they don't realize they've been so completely duped over something so important as this war?


Bill

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