May 25, 2007

• Where Are We?

  Where are we? Again we turn to Glenn Greenwald, who shows us a poll, which says that only 46% of Americans believe that attacks on civilians are never justified. We score worse than Morocco, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, and... Iran.

  In maybe too much fairness, we're about even with Morocco. The rest beat us by 30 points or better.

  What really creeps me out, though, is the 27% of Americans who think attacking civilians is 'rarely' justified, and the 19% who say 'sometimes.' How can targeting civilians be 'rarely' or 'sometimes' justified? Answer: They hadn't really ever thought it through. If you live in any of those other places, you very likely have a definite opinion on the targeting of civilians for political gain. If you live in the US, however, it's not even an issue.

  This is a good thing, in a way, because it means we've avoided much of the violence of other places. But it's bad, in a way, because it means we're able to justify such action, having never experienced its horror on a regular basis.

  Greenwald goes on to talk about the creeping totalitarianism in the GOP, which he's been seeing for a while, and which I've been seeing since the '80s.

  BTW: Xanga ghods... No tags. Tags no work. Editor behavior changed. What gives?

  • 9:16 pm
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