At some point, pacifism becomes part of the machinery of death.

[dairydog91]

21. The Softer Side of Neoconservatism?

While it's often portrayed around these parts as being simple corporationism, it's always been chock full of this mix of vague moralizing and belligerence.

The civil war in Syria has killed more than 100,000 people essentially one person at a time, which is clearly an abomination, but it is not defined as a crime against humanity. The mass use of nerve agents against civilians is a crime against humanity, however.

First of all, the case under international law isn't very strong, which is why you so often hear the administration use weasel terms like "international norms". If it's not even a clear-cut case that it's illegal for Syria to use gas as a weapon, what's the reason to bomb Syria?

Second, why all the endless harping about nerve gas? What is so immoral about it, relative to America's love of weapons that cook people alive? Hell, the U.S. managed to kill 100,000 Japanese, mostly civilians, in one single night using napalm, and that was hardly a one-off use of it. The U.S. napalmed the hell out of Japan, North Korea, and Vietnam, and that includes civilian areas. Death by napalm is grotesque. It's gooey gel that burns viciously, can't be removed, and the result is that the people hit with it are roasted alive. Given a choice between dying from napalm and dying from nerve gas, I'll go with the nerve gas.

It’s not a matter of how we’re going to explain this to the Syrians. It’s a matter of how we’re going to explain this to our kids.

"Johnny, I want you to listen to me. Americans don't kill people by using organophosphates to poison them. We burn them alive. Why, there's nothing more American than using some jellied gasoline or white phosphorus to cook someone until their urine boils and their eyes cook like fried eggs. Maybe we blast 'em with depleted uranium and watch their kids grow up with lumps the size of grapefruits where their eyes should be. We also like to drop cluster bombs, which spray little bomblets over large areas. Since some of those bomblets don't go off, any civilians living in the area can then play Survivor: The Real Game! But Johnny, remember, we DON'T USE ORGANOPHOSPHATES. And that's why we're Good People."