Last week a trolley accident in Boston caused the injury of nearly 50 people. The operator of the Trolley had been texting a message on his cell phone when the accident occurred. Naturally this touched off a "debate" regarding the use of cell phones while driving or operating a vehicle. The resulting mini media fire storm that erupted was a typically American response to an accident in which any hint of culpability on the part of anyone a party to the incident is examined to death and debated seemingly endlessly. This is a country that is notoriously intolerant of "excuses" regarding all manner of calamities and accidents or even tragedies resulting from acts of God. If the slightest chance existed that an accident could have been avoided- that a tragedy averted- no matter how far fetched- no matter how costly or impractical the "solution", Americans want to see someone punished if not a whole new law passed to "make sure it doesn't happen again".
This isn't a phenomena particular to ideology or politics either. This control freak mentality is a deeply embedded cultural trait. Often times, what passes for "conservative" commentators in this country will deride and denounce such ridiculous political over reactions to things like proposing a whole new criminal category for driving while drowsy in response to a driver being killed by a teen who had played video games for 24 hours and then fell asleep at the wheel. But then, they will with equal fervor blame schools for not having guns on hand, presumably in every teacher's desk, when a blue moon appears and some alienated, social outcast, loser high school student goes on a shooting spree. Gotta blame someone, gotta blame something.
This is a society that actually puts warning messages on cups of hot beverages- telling us to be careful . . . the cup of hot liquid you bought is hot! McDonald's should have known that some of us carry cups of hot coffee between our legs while driving! No matter how far fetched- no matter how patently absurd Americans will demand accountability for acts and occurrences no one is even remotely responsible for, no one could reasonably foresee. We demand that we be protected from our own stupidity and recklessness. Whether it be a train derailing or a roller coaster losing a bolt and flying off the track- we demand answers. We demand that someone be blamed. Virtually any occurrence in which someone is killed or wounded in the United States is going to be documented by mounds of paper from insurance companies, to police, to personal injury lawyers and courts of law.
This control freak culture of demanding accountability for the uncontrollable- for the unforeseen- however, ends at the borders of the United States. It doesn't apply to foreigners. And it most certainly doesn't apply to foreigners who happen to be blessed by the presence of American combat troops. Not only do we not demand accountability from our armed forces in foreign lands, except in the most extreme cases in which criminal intent can't be denied, we actually blame the innocent civilians killed by American forces for their own deaths. The same culture that here, at home, holds night club owners criminally accountable for freak- one in a million chance fires that break out in their establishments that kill dozens- actually finds nothing wrong with the killing of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan that our military knows will occur whenever they drop a bomb or launch a drone. The bombing of villages, in which it is completely impossible to deny that you know you are going to kill civilians- in which the "enemy" forces may or may not be residing- is simply yawned at- shrugged at with the dismissive phrase "it's war". Well yes, a "war" in which one side may as well be using bows and arrows for all the good their light weapons can do against the 21st century fire power of the most technologically advanced military the world has ever seen. The "wars" in Iraq and Af-Pak are only wars if you consider a 300 pound seven foot tall man beating the tar out of a 45 pound 8 year old girl to be a "fight".
The intentional destruction of sewage plants and electrical grids that will indirectly kill thousands raises no hue or cry in this country. Twinkies left too long on a gas station mini mart shelf will concern Americans more than the daily carnage inflicted on civilians (nameless civilians) by the US military on the other side of the globe.
When it comes to the murder and mayhem caused by the US military in foreign countries- no excuse is too stupid, to idiotic- to outlandishly moronic (not to mention unspeakably callous) for Americans to accept. An American soldier executes at point blank range a motionless barely breathing wounded insurgent in a Mosque that had already been checked out by other American troops just minutes earlier? Hey- he could have had a grenade. He could have been a suicide bomber. The US military shoots up whole families in their cars for failing to slow down at some check point? Hey- it could have been a car bomb and the driver is to blame for not slowing down. Soldiers who signed up for war - with the understanding that they might get killed- shouldn't risk their lives even a little- better to kill car loads of nameless brown foreign families first than to entertain any risk that some American "combat" troops might be hurt or killed. Intentionally running down little kids on roads because there might be a roadside bomb is OK, nothing wrong with that all, but falling asleep at the wheel by accident because you played video games all night is a criminal act that surely must be "fought" with a new law.
100 plus villagers get literally ripped to pieces in a bombing run on their village? Oh- it's the "Taliban's" fault for not standing in open grass fields in the middle of nowhere firing off flares to tell the Americans where they are so they can be bombed more easily. And besides the "Taliban" probably killed them, packed them in the houses, and then "tricked" the US pilots into bombing them. And besides- the relatives get paid 2 grand for their loss- or the average earnings for one year in that part of the world. That is how much a family member being decapitated by an American bomb is worth- one year's income. That sum is about 48 thousand less than the average settlement in a whip lash car accident case in the United States.
There is more debate right now in this country about how combat stress centers in Iraq can protect troops from a freakish rare killing rampage than there is about how to not kill dozens of civilians every couple of weeks in aerial attacks that we know will kill innocents.
US troops kill entire families, shooting some family members in the face at point blank range, while throwing grenades into houses filled with cowering women and children? Hey- a sniper fired at them- so it's the fault of the insurgents.
None of these pathetic excuses for institutionalized American troop cowardice is however ever granted to the "terrorists". When a "terrorist" bomb goes off killing 20 Iraqi Quisling police officer cadets and 10 civilians why then- that is proof of how little the enemy values human life- proof of their fiendish disregard for the lives of innocents- evidence of their barbarism. And it is proof of their "cowardice" as well- the irony of suicide bombers being called cowards in our media actually never crosses our minds. But the US army lobbing shells or bombing from the air packed neighborhoods in response to a mortar attack is completely acceptable- even praiseworthy. That's "combat".
The same country that here at home vilifies landlords for a few lead paint chips - and demands they be held accountable for their callous disregard of parents who let their children crawl around on the floor unattended to eat these chips that they inexplicably haven't swept up- demands not one iota of accountability in the killing of 100 civilians in an indiscriminate bombing raid on a village. No, we would sooner entertain plainly imbecilic stories about how the Taliban killed over a hundred of their own men, women, and children and then put them in houses while waving down an American fighter to bomb the houses than demand an investigation of what is actually plausible. Americans would rather see 100 Afghan women and children put through a meat grinder than see so much as one American ground pounder risk a stubbed toe (begging the question why have ground troops at all if civilian life is of less concern than that of actual combatants- who signed up to fight and maybe die?) Is that what the US military means in its recruitment ads about "honor"? To use mass killing air-strikes that they know will kill civilians rather than risk the lives of soldiers? Men who knowingly signed up to engage in war?
Much is being made about the new torture photos that may or may not be released. The position that these photos will increase anti American hostility and thus jeopardize the safety of "the troops" is absurd. Could they really exacerbate hatred for Americans more than the wholly repulsive irresponsibility of a cretin like Bill O'Reilly and those like him, or American "military officials" who call Afghan villagers who lost their entire families greedy liars out to defraud the US out of a pittance? Or a media that is always more concerned about the policy "impact" civilian killing incidents have than the actual victims of these attacks? Could they really make the world hate America more than our own pathetic demand that we be swaddled in bubble wrap and kept safe from chance and probability themselves while blaming foreign women and children for hitting the bombs we drop on them with their bodies?
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