Greenwald on Boston bombings: Same level of anger is warranted when US is the attacker

[Elvin Ives]

Excerpt:

"There's nothing wrong per se with paying more attention to tragedy and violence that happens relatively nearby and in familiar places. Whether wrong or not, it's probably human nature, or at least human instinct, to do that, and that happens all over the world. I'm not criticizing that. But one wishes that the empathy for victims and outrage over the ending of innocent human life that instantly arises when the US is targeted by this sort of violence would at least translate into similar concern when the US is perpetrating it, as it so often does (far, far more often than it is targeted by such violence).

Regardless of your views of justification and intent: whatever rage you're feeling toward the perpetrator of this Boston attack, that's the rage in sustained form that people across the world feel toward the US for killing innocent people in their countries. Whatever sadness you feel for yesterday's victims, the same level of sadness is warranted for the innocent people whose lives are ended by American bombs. However profound a loss you recognize the parents and family members of these victims to have suffered, that's the same loss experienced by victims of US violence. It's natural that it won't be felt as intensely when the victims are far away and mostly invisible, but applying these reactions to those acts of US aggression would go a long way toward better understanding what they are and the outcomes they generate."

Whole story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/16/boston-marathon-explosions-notes-reactions?CMP=twt_gu

[Ron Green]

1. Would that this message have been more widely available

after 9-11. Maybe at least the New York Times could have not beat the war drum so loudly.

[graham4anything]

2. Bing Crosby-everybody has an angle...here is Greenwald's angle he makes his living on-

The last line says it all of the first paragraph
INDEED, NOT VOTING AT ALL.
yup.
this says it all.
Wonder what he will write tomorrow. Three months from now. Three years.

Everybody indeed has an angle. Negativity is his.


wiki

Greenwald describes himself politically as independent. He has been particularly critical of actions jointly supported by Democrats and Republicans, writing: "the worst and most tyrannical government actions in Washington are equally supported on a fully bipartisan basis."[28] In the preface to his first book, How Would a Patriot Act? (2006), Greenwald opens with some of his own personal political history, describing his 'pre-political' self as neither liberal nor conservative as a whole, voting neither for George W. Bush nor for any of his rivals (indeed, not voting at all).[5]

"I think the only means of true political change will come from people working outside of that [two-party electoral] system to undermine it, and subvert it, and weaken it, and destroy it; not try to work within it to change it."[29

[Common Sense Party]

4. What's YOUR angle?

[Cal Carpenter]

9. Confusion and distraction

at best.

[Common Sense Party]

10. And unceasing hero worship.

[bvar22]

17. True Dat!

!

[graham4anything]

11. The continuation of Barack Obama's agenda forever. I also like to watch TV

[City Lights]

13. It's good that you admitted to having an agenda.

[graham4anything]

15. We all do. No one on a political discussion board does not.

Steve Earle said this

"The problem with the country music scene in Nashville is not that they are rightwing. The problem is that politics isn't discussed at all. That is why I left".(c) Steve Earle.

In younger days I probably would have been on the other side.
But this is not the 60s/70s.

And I have evolved from my older opinions.

If you go to someone I admired in the 1960s, Mark Rudd (SDS leader) his site from a few years ago, he basically says some very profound stuff about protesting then, and now.
And he supported President Obama

Harry Chapin didn't go outside the system, when he went to DC and Congress and tried to work with them to alleviate world hunger (til he tragically died.)

[Bonobo]

7. Especially you. nt

[Fantastic Anarchist]

23. What difference does his bio make?

Do you agree with the OP, or not, regardless of "angle?" Everyone has an angle, by the way.

[Carolina]

3. He makes a valid point

When I heard about the bombings and then saw the photos, my mind also flashed to the horror the US has unleashed on others (Shock & Awe, drones...). I am not saying this is payback nor that the poor innocent victims deserved what happened. Certainly not. But it made me think about what is done in our name elsewhere. The horror and later the hatred.

Just awful and so very sad.

[geek tragedy]

5. Didn't take him long to scold people for not reacting according to his demands. nt

[graham4anything]

12. +1

[tblue]

14. He's saying, 'Now we know how they feel'

I know Afghans and Pakistanis mourn loss just as much as we do. Whether it's from terrorism or from drones, it still hurts and the human cost should never be disregarded. Sometimes sone of us think our pain means more than others'.

Not arguing with you. More just thinking this OP through. There's truth in it.

Peace.

[geek tragedy]

20. I see what he's saying.

I don't disagree with most of the underlying assumptions, just the whole attempt to shoehorn every tragedy into serving the same talking points.

[woo me with science]

26. Excellent post. Thank you. nt

[obnoxiousdrunk]

24. +100

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

[Kolesar]

8. The 8 Worst Responses To The Boston Marathon Bombings

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/04/16/1870971/8-worst-boston-responses/

[Common Sense Party]

18. Many of those were/are rampant around DU

yesterday and today.

[deurbano]

16. The American War

When I was young, and would see the terrible images of the Vietnam War on television, I didn’t really identify with the Vietnamese. While I felt sympathy for them, I also thought they were “used” to this sort of tragedy, so in a different category of humans. I grew up in a very white (at the time), middle class area, and until high school, knew very few non-white, non-middle class people. I viewed the Vietnamese as “other”—both racially and in terms of class. I had the idea that poor people of color could “take” things better than “my” people could, so what was happening to “them” (and this included famine in Africa, etc.) was not as devastating for “them” as it would be for “us.”

By 8th grade, my world view had (thankfully) begun to expand, and I was quietly (since my parents were very authoritarian, politically involved Republicans-- who had formerly been Southern Democrats) supporting RFK’s presidential campaign. Even so, it wasn’t until I saw one of those educational films about WWII as a freshman in high school that I definitively turned against the Vietnam War. And it was the footage of the impact of extensive bombing on WHITE European civilians that finally moved me. THAT I could relate to. MY innocent children getting bombed…

Now, I have a daughter who was born in Ho Chi Minh City… and when I look at her beautiful (and so familiar) face, it is very painful to remember thinking of the Vietnamese as “them.”

(It was when I was in Vietnam for my daughter's adoption that I first heard the horrific conflict- the one that had initially had so little impact on me- referred to as the “American War.”)

[Poll_Blind]

19. Human lives are equally sacred and it is a virtue to give their loss the same consideration. nt

PB

[Dragonfli]

25. I Agree, I posted this about the boston bombings...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2682897

Justice is important, finding charging and then imprisoning those that kill is the only way I know of to try to maintain a civilization where it's made known that life is not cheap it's precious and every attempt will be made, each and every time, to see justice done.

I would and have said the same about the Bush torture kill group and those that order "double tap" strikes as a means of creating terror

Just as important is to find out who, what and if possible where to watch to prevent any more attacks that may be planned in an attempt to protect life.

Who, What and where within the Bush administration as well as the Pentagon and CIA adopted terrorism, torture and the wholesale slaughter of civilians as policy. Since this was never done, it continues to this day and Drone attacks especially have become increased and even less restrained regarding civilian deaths often targeting first responders with a second strike

Destruction of innocent people for any reason anywhere makes me doubt humanity, life has become so cheap on this planet, and all too often those responsible will never face justice.

"Looking forward" resulted in war criminals never facing justice.

also terrorism is a tactic used that I find abhorrent, used by small groups and governments alike
I posted this in response to the assertion that atheists would not be responsible, only the religious commit such acts

terrorism noun (Concise Encyclopedia)

Systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. It has been used throughout history by political organizations of both the left and the right, by nationalist and ethnic groups, and by revolutionaries. Although usually thought of as a means of destabilizing or overthrowing existing political institutions, terror also has been employed by governments against their own people to suppress dissent;...

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorism

The belief that terrorists are mostly religious fanatics, is subjective nonsense and the need to believe so is silly at best, or a tool to generate hatred towards an ethnicity or common religion at worse.

It is a way to demonize entire cultures of people based on the most common religion of their region or ethnicity. "All Muslims are prone to violence and terrorism" for instance is bullshit because only an extremely small minority of Muslims are terrorists, and frankly the few that are, are largely deluded and likely being used by people that have political motives.

Similarly "Christians are a bunch of abortion clinic bombers" is equal bullshit because only an extremely small minority of Christians are terrorists, and frankly the few that are, are largely deluded and likely being used by people that have political motives.

I am sure I need not remind you of similar distortions concerning the Jewish faith and ethnicity. Or Witches (neo-pagan), or dozens of others.

Most terror is about politics and that proves to me that politics can be the most evil religion of all.

Can people of faith be silly, judgemental and bigoted? Definitely, seen a lot of that first hand but brood brushes are extremely inaccurate, many of faith are quite the opposite I have also seen that first hand.

It is not only people of faith that can be silly, judgemental and bigoted as you have just proven.

I should not have to add at this point that even atheists have political views and are just as likely as a any other to force their politics through terror and fear.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2682832

I am sickened by terrorist acts here as well as everywhere else, I am sickened by sociopaths that can plan actions that they know will kill innocent people no matter where those people. I don't see why I should feel less for people that are killed overseas by terrorists with IEDs, or by double tap organized violence designed to cause terror for a military political objective.

All life should be held precious by all people that are not sociopaths, If one doesn't find All life precious, they may well be sociopathic (sociopaths lack the ability to feel for the dead, no matter where they are)

[Chan790]

21. I had "Under" in an "Over/Under" wager on how long before GG outed himself again as an asshole.

I won!

(It's $20 but it'll buy pizza and Coca-cola.)

[Fantastic Anarchist]

27. How is he an asshole?

What specifically about the opening post made you think he was an asshole?

[Chan790]

30. Assholes make false equivalencies out of tragedies to further their agenda.

Greenwald's good for this kind of thing like clockwork. He almost seems to take glee in making such equivalencies...and for that he should be off-limits for DU. (If it were up to me, support for Greenwald would be an auto-PPR after he wrote this article in the wake of Newtown.)

[Kolesar]

31. Glen Greenwald trying to be a psychologist

I only made it halfway through it.
His compositions are overwrought and unreadable

[Fantastic Anarchist]

32. I didn't read your link yet ...

But how is it a false equivalency? Do they not feel sorrow, anger, confusion and such at their loss of life any differently than we do?

If a drone wipes out a wedding party, do they feel differently than we do when people are killed needless trying to run a marathon? I don't get it. What's the false equivalance?

Do the principles of universality not apply when it comes to other people?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

22. I was going to write an essay along these lines.

But I've been pretty busy at work. Greenwald, is of course, absolutely correct.

If we apply the principle of universality, we can hopefully, as a consequence, encourage peace.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. Yes. And, the killers should be looked upon with the same level of contempt.

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. Albert Einstein

[Rex]

29. As I said in another thread, the victims could care less about the method.

They might give it some thought and pontificate on it, but do you expect anyone to be friendly with their assailant(s) after losing their kids or parents? Dead is dead.

It is morally wrong to kill innocent people. EOM.