Define Atrocity

Look. I admit I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. I'm just not getting the whole outrage thing over the Haditha Massacre. Opps. Are we calling it a massacre yet, or are we still calling it an incident?

Maybe one of these West Point guys can explain to me why it's okay for our AirForce to drop a 500 lb bomb on a crowded urban neighborhood, and call the dead civilians collateral damage? Why is the gunning down of civilians unacceptable, when the destruction of Fallujah was no big deal? How can it be okay to use White phosphorus (Shake and Bake) in an urban area, but it's unacceptable for a soldier to shoot a family dead in the streets?

If I had a choice, I would rather have a bullet in my head than die slowly from a chemical that burnt the flesh from my bones. If I had a choice, I would pick a quick execution, a bullet in my head over having my family seeing the scattered remains of my body after a bombing. There isn't a choice for those who become the collateral damage, a by-product of the military industrial complex, these folks die without an investigation, they are not remembered for dying slowly in a fire that we have dropped upon them, they are dismissed as an error in targeting, or maybe they were just living in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One of you Harvard guys please define atrocity. And then explain to me why it's okay to kill civilians when you are not looking them in the eye.

| +Save/Share | |