Killing Continues

War does things to people--I'm guessing that a lot of folks have read or heard about the soldier who shot and killed a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a mosque over the weekend. Unfortunately for the soldier, his actions are on video tape for everyone to see (a sanitized version with the actual shooting blacked out has been aired on US television).

Without justifying the action of the soldier, my own take is that the real criminals are the ones who sent them there in the first place. Yes, military service is "voluntary"--you can always opt for work in the fast-food industry I guess. And I guess it's entirely possible the young man in question is simply a cold-blooded killer. However, I think it's much more likely that this case is simply a matter of insane reactions to an insane situation. Unfortunately, the ramifications will reverberate. Abu Ghraib might have had a shelf life of only a few months here in the land of "values;" however, throughout the world the horrors are still fresh. Mix in Guantanamo, the whole sorry misadventure in Iraq, and now this, stir, and you've got the makings of a bona fide reason for the rest of the world to shrug their shoulders if, heavens forbid, we see another act of terrorism here in the USA.

Worse still is that we no longer seem to even care about things like the bombings in Madrid, in Istanbul, in Indonesia, and elsewhere. It's as if the entire country is engaged in a national version of navel gazing that precludes any understanding of the concept of a world community.