Personal Responsibility


It's ironic and instructive to watch the wingnutosphere go all atwitter re: PFC Scott Thomas Beauchamp (I'm surprised no one--to my knowledge--has made some sort of Francophobe slur about his last name) just as more revelations about Pat Tillman's death--and the Army cover-up--emerge, and on the heels of a lawsuit filed alleging shameful incompetence and venality by the VA when it comes to medical care.

Supporting the troops, as we all know, has never been more than a gnaw-on-the-bone ort casually tossed in the direction of the teeth-grinding mob. Hell, more often than not, it's combined with things like the spitting myth as a means to incite hatred towards "antiwar libruls," much in the same way that slogans like "states rights" were used to incite violence a generation ago.

Soldiers--like "Iraqis"--merely serve as placeholders. They're props, to be trotted out as necessary, then stuffed into the nearest trash can once their temporary purpose--a foil through which hatred is channeled elsewhere--is served. That said, hatred can be channeled on an astonishing scale towards soldiers or Iraqis should either seek to assume a more significant role, or even demand treatment as a human being. Then, the bombshells of rhetoric are truly unleased, although those furiously mastubating typing away on their keyboards never personally follow up their verbal salvos with genuine action. Instead, the Malkins of this world publish personal information with the hope that they can dupe some dimwitted thug into handling the dirty work.

Meanwhile, not just Iraq, but the entire Middle East, not to mention Central Asia, is rapidly turning into hell in a handbag, or worse, into hell in a backpack if not sedan full of plastic explosives, thus proving that hatred is truly a universal. And, I dunno, maybe it's just me, but from a pretty early age, I've always considered it a bad idea to fight fire with gasoline. By the time the fire DOES go out, there really isn't anything worth saving...