[speechless]
i couldn't not mention this, but i can't figure out how to talk about it, either. so i'm going to start off talking about this.
this design is of a tattoo that i have on my right wrist. it's arabic calligraphy, persian specifically, and the translation is, "it is not for him to pride himself who loves his own country, but rather for him who loves the whole world." it is in no way related to islam, and i don't see anything even vaguely unpatriotic in the sentiment. loving your country is great, it's outstanding, but hating all of the other countries for being The Other Countries is not. that's all. my mother is half syrian, but my dad is mostly irish, and i'm the whitest white girl you ever met. honestly, by the middle of winter i'm very nearly translucent. when that tattoo is exposed nobody wants to sit next to me on the bus. toadie says it's because no one wants to do the thing that makes me set off the bomb. she's almost joking.
i am horrified by acts of terrorism. all of them. i'm devastated when islamist extremists blow up trains and buildings, and i'm devastated when christian extremists blow up abortion clinics. the relativistic morality employed by such groups is mind-boggling enough to make one seasick. i think, though, or rather i fear, that in this country a massive number of people are beginning to apply that same sort of relativism to at least the entirety of the middle east, and probably more of the planet than that. to think that the "america good, them bad" mentality has progressed to the point where the image of a dead and dismembered stranger, quite possibly a civilian, is on par with pornography in terms of its entertainment value simply because that stranger is of middle eastern descent is so
evil. i say it's evil. you can't designate enemies based on geography, draw a circle on a map and say that everyone who was born inside of it deserves the worst you can give them. you can't let a war become an excuse to cultivate racism, and you can not encourage these american kids fighting in other countries to think of killing as sport or of dead bodies as trophies. the only theoretically valid argument for this war at this point is that america is trying to improve the quality of life for the citizens of iraq.
how can you ask those citizens to take that argument seriously, when our citizens, who are supposedly in their country to stand up for them, are mocking their dead? how can you ask it of anyone?
AMERICAblog has posted several follow-ups to the original article, and appears to be following the story as closely and accurately as possible. it hasn't gotten any less disturbing as the day's gone on. i think john's right when he suggests that these photographs don't differ, really, from the ones of lynndie england that led to her conviction of, among other things, the committing of an indecent act. morality is not a moveable feast, (yes, yes, i stole that line from spalding gray, and i'm going to steal the next one from him, too) and i get very confused, because i keep seeing it moving all the time.
this design is of a tattoo that i have on my right wrist. it's arabic calligraphy, persian specifically, and the translation is, "it is not for him to pride himself who loves his own country, but rather for him who loves the whole world." it is in no way related to islam, and i don't see anything even vaguely unpatriotic in the sentiment. loving your country is great, it's outstanding, but hating all of the other countries for being The Other Countries is not. that's all. my mother is half syrian, but my dad is mostly irish, and i'm the whitest white girl you ever met. honestly, by the middle of winter i'm very nearly translucent. when that tattoo is exposed nobody wants to sit next to me on the bus. toadie says it's because no one wants to do the thing that makes me set off the bomb. she's almost joking.
i am horrified by acts of terrorism. all of them. i'm devastated when islamist extremists blow up trains and buildings, and i'm devastated when christian extremists blow up abortion clinics. the relativistic morality employed by such groups is mind-boggling enough to make one seasick. i think, though, or rather i fear, that in this country a massive number of people are beginning to apply that same sort of relativism to at least the entirety of the middle east, and probably more of the planet than that. to think that the "america good, them bad" mentality has progressed to the point where the image of a dead and dismembered stranger, quite possibly a civilian, is on par with pornography in terms of its entertainment value simply because that stranger is of middle eastern descent is so
evil. i say it's evil. you can't designate enemies based on geography, draw a circle on a map and say that everyone who was born inside of it deserves the worst you can give them. you can't let a war become an excuse to cultivate racism, and you can not encourage these american kids fighting in other countries to think of killing as sport or of dead bodies as trophies. the only theoretically valid argument for this war at this point is that america is trying to improve the quality of life for the citizens of iraq.
how can you ask those citizens to take that argument seriously, when our citizens, who are supposedly in their country to stand up for them, are mocking their dead? how can you ask it of anyone?
AMERICAblog has posted several follow-ups to the original article, and appears to be following the story as closely and accurately as possible. it hasn't gotten any less disturbing as the day's gone on. i think john's right when he suggests that these photographs don't differ, really, from the ones of lynndie england that led to her conviction of, among other things, the committing of an indecent act. morality is not a moveable feast, (yes, yes, i stole that line from spalding gray, and i'm going to steal the next one from him, too) and i get very confused, because i keep seeing it moving all the time.
posted by juniper pearl @ 6:05 PM
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