They had a distance that has disappeared. A distance that helped them keep the rarity and unpredictability of the tragedy in perspective, granting them parental peace.
As Monbiot observed: “there can scarcely be a person on earth with access to the media who is untouched by the grief of the people” in Newtown. The exact opposite is true for the children and their families continuously killed in the Muslim world by the US government: huge numbers of people, particularly in the countries responsible, remain completely untouched by the grief that is caused in those places. That is by design—to ensure that opposition is muted—and it is brutally effective.
By sickening use I mean that I see no way that a large-scale conventional operation in Northern Pakistan would’ve even been approved—nor a reason to start a military operation there, instead of the U.S. handling the real problem—the unstable, aggressive and brutally incompetent Pakistani government. In my opinion, it ought to have been pressured to provide good administration and good policing in the troubled areas, to eliminate the roots of insurgency and terrorism instead of continuing the cycle of violence.
A regime that has nuclear weapons, a modern army and a huge “security” apparatus but can’t prevent chaos, poverty and tribal warfare in its own backyard is being coddled just because it’s politically expedient for the US. Unless the Americans are willing to blast every single inch of Pakistan, I see no way how drone strikes could be helping the whole mess. But oh, the CIA and the military have some dead insurgents to show for it; no more frags could mean no more promotions and no more huge budgets!
The other side of the coin - how this very distance can be put to a sickening use with drone strikes.
By sickening use do you mean more pinpoint attacks that kill fewer people than conventional means?
By sickening use I mean that I see no way that a large-scale conventional operation in Northern Pakistan would’ve even been approved—nor a reason to start a military operation there, instead of the U.S. handling the real problem—the unstable, aggressive and brutally incompetent Pakistani government. In my opinion, it ought to have been pressured to provide good administration and good policing in the troubled areas, to eliminate the roots of insurgency and terrorism instead of continuing the cycle of violence.
A regime that has nuclear weapons, a modern army and a huge “security” apparatus but can’t prevent chaos, poverty and tribal warfare in its own backyard is being coddled just because it’s politically expedient for the US. Unless the Americans are willing to blast every single inch of Pakistan, I see no way how drone strikes could be helping the whole mess. But oh, the CIA and the military have some dead insurgents to show for it; no more frags could mean no more promotions and no more huge budgets!