Thursday, August 29, 2013

Blake Hounshell on the Moral Arc of the Universe and Syria: "It Bends Toward Targeted Airstrikes"








If Blake Hounshell means what I think he means by this tweet, I find it a compelling observation. One minute, we Americans are celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, dream of a world in which everyone can sit down at the table together in peace, a world where the moral arc of history bends to justice, and the next minute--schizophrenia on steroids--we're beating the drum of war.

As Patrick Smith observes at Salon today, the lapdog media appear to have learned nothing from the humiliation they endured after their craven capitulation to the powers that be as Bush and his cronies rushed us into war. The notion that a missile strike on another nation is the most effective way to deal with the heinous act of deploying chemical weapons is breathtakingly shortsighted, since any military intervention at this point is likely to result in the loss of more civilian lives. And to inflame hostilities throughout the whole region, resulting in more death . . . .

When did we Americans and our media become so unimaginative about dealing with situations that demand diplomacy, sanctions, forming alliances with other nations to bring moral pressure to bear on nations that cross moral lines, I wonder? When did we become so infatuated with macho militarism, so that that way of being in the world now seems synonymous with the American way?

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