Americans puffed up in self righteous indignation

[G_j]

How much remorse have Americans shown for all those thousands of human beings killed, maimed and traumatized as they lashed out against Muslim countries 'because of 9/11'? They never apologized or offered the slightest sign of contrition, but now they are puffed up in self righteous indignation about a cultural center.
How sick is that?

(and of course, I don't mean ALL Americans, just FAR TOO MANY!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War

Source Iraqi casualties March 2003 to...

Iraq Family Health Survey 151,000 violent deaths.
June 2006

Lancet survey 601,027 violent deaths out of 654,965 excess deaths. June 2006

Opinion Research Business survey 1,033,000 violent deaths as a result of the conflict. August 2007

Associated Press 110,600 violent deaths
April 2009

Iraq Body Count 95,888 – 104,595 violent civilian deaths as a result of the conflict.
April 2010

http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html

At least 919,967 people have
been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq
since the U.S. and coalition attacks, based on lowest credible estimates.

Sources and methodology are explained in the sidebar. Some questions about lower or higher casualty counts cited elsewhere are addressed in these footnotes. This page is updated about once monthly. Most recent update: Aug. 10, 2010.


# Casualties in Afghanistan:
Afghan troops killed <1> 8,587
Afghan troops seriously injured <2> 25,761
Afghan civilians killed <3> 8,813
Afghan civilians seriously injured <4> 15,863
U.S. troops killed <5> 1,140
U.S. troops seriously injured <6> 3,420
Other coalition troops killed <7> 772
Other coalition troops seriously injured <8> 2,316
Contractors killed <9> 298
Contractors seriously injured <10> 2,428
Journalists killed <11> 19
Journalists seriously injured <12> unknown

Total killed in Afghanistan 19,629
Total injured in Afghanistan 48,644

on edit:
to the unreccers, yea, it's you I'm talking about..

[Webster Green]

1. But....9/11 changed everything.

At least if you subscribe to US exceptionalism.

9/11 didn't change shit. A bunch of religiously insane whack jobs killed thousands of innocent people. Nothing new about that. It did kind of fuck up the neighborhood, but it certainly didn't "change everything".

[unblock]

3. what makes you so sure they were even religiously insane?

they were criminals crazy enough to go on a massive murder/suicide mission, but we obviously didn't get much of a chance to interview them about their motives. we only know they were part of an organization that uses religion as ONE of their control/recruitment mechanisms. they also use violence and threats and propaganda and cash as lures.

in particular, supposedly they threaten to kill family if you don't do as told and they promise to pay family handsomely if you fulfill your mission. it's entirely possible that some of all of the 19 didn't even give a rat's ass about religion.

[Webster Green]

8. True enough. At least thast's what we've been told.

When I saw the towers fall, it looked like a controlled demolition. I'm still not convinced that it wasn't.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. Haven't you seen Bush?

:tinfoilhat:

[unblock]

12. shrub, yes, i'll believe him to be religiously insane

although i do think most of the right-wing leaders merely use religion as a tool. i think they're non-believers or think of religion something that would be entirely irrelevant to their lives were it not for how damn politically useful it can be.

come to think of it, shrub probably falls into this category, too.

[readmoreoften]

2. Mass murder. Mass murder that continues to this day.

[hfojvt]

4. you certainly sound self-righteous and indignant

Look at all those Merkans that you are superior to.

This message to the voters that "we liberals are great and you people suck" is not really a winning message. It does not help to win elections and it does not help to end wars and it does not help to build mosques.

It does not even convince people of your greatness. You know who was great? Martin Luther King.

"When Digby challenged Rush Limbaugh this week, she didn’t drop an R-bomb. Instead, she used her words to describe, quite accurately, something Limbaugh actually does in his pseudo-discussions of race (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 8/10/10). In this way, a liberal can create a discussion which might attract decent people from outside the tribe. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality,” Dr. King once said. “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

But then, Dr. King always affirmed the potential of human goodness, of inner light—an affirmation we modern white liberals joyously toss away. We love it when our adversaries fail. We glory in their fallen state, whether it’s real or imagined."

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh081110.shtml

Instead you glory in your own, and your tribe's, goodness, and also glory in the depravity of most other Americans, or at least, far too many.


Although, I seem to be falling into the same trap. My words are attacking you, perhaps implying my own greatness, and are unlikely to produce anything from your tribe except hostility. However, it is late and I need to turn in and cannot think of a better way to express my basic disagreement, but I certainly need one too.

[G_j]

7. I wasn't addressing "voters" I was addressing the bigotry of those

expressing outrage over a Muslim cultural center in NYC, and
the massive crimes against humanity committed in the name of "9/11"




“Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten….America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness—justice.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here

[Karenina]

5. I'm glad YOU said it!

:hide:

[malaise]

6. But but but

They only killed Muslims and they've spent years denigrating them. :sarcasm:

[Octafish]

9. Unreccers have one thing going for them...

Knowing they side with evil means their memories will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The same holds for those who think nothing. They just don't know why they feel so crappy looking at themselves in the mirror.

[JoeyT]

10. Are you kidding?

It took YEARS to dehumanize Muslims to the point the average American can feel good about them being pointlessly murdered in their name.
Especially since they couldn't openly use the same kind of propaganda they used for the racial groups killed in the past, since it might have caused a backlash.

[jotsy]

13. Add a rec.

There's a video I'd love to post but won't because the song has been adopted as a right wing anti-Obama message anchor; I'm not a big time party girl, but consider the package of the video akin to speaking the language of Mordor in the shire: not sentiments I'll see uttered here.

The lyrics are another matter however and apply here I think.
From Don Henley's End of the Innocence album.

A new age is dawning on fewer than expected
Business as usual that's how the headlines read
Some shaky modern saviors have now been ressurected
In all this excitement, girl you may have been misled

People want a miracle they say "Oh lord, can't you see us?
We're tryin' to make a livin' down here, keep the children fed."
From little dark motel rooms to six flags over Jesus
"How are the mighty fallen down" so the bible said

Chorus
But you don't have to pray to a little Tin God
Step out of the way for a little Tin God
You might fear the reaper, fear the rod
But you never have to get down on your knees
You don't have to holler please, please
No you never have to get down on your knees for a little Tin God.

(For me this is the verse that screams Baby Buns BumBushka)
The cowboy's name was Jingo and he heard that there was trouble
so in a blaze of glory he rode out of the west
no one was ever certain what it was that he was saying
But they loved it when he told them they were better than the rest.

(Last verse, just trying to deliver complete message)
Throw down a rope from heaven and lead the flock to water
The man in the middle would have you think that you have no other choice
But to wander in the wilderness of all the upturned faces
If you stop and listen long enough you will hear your own small voice

Of course the chorus sandwiches that last verse.


A comment up thread mentions society and where its self image is at and I wanted to share one last thought. Every day, I look in the mirror and try not to see the woman whose country brings war to children a world away.

[nashville_brook]

14. 919,967

damn.