Christmas in Connecticut
The slaughter of 20 elementary school children in Connecticut has shaken me to the core. As an American who has been horrified by Washington’s foreign policy over the past 11 years, I must admit to having imbibed a steady diet of death and destruction, but there is nevertheless something special about a tragedy that strikes close to home. I was born and raised in a mostly Catholic factory town in New Jersey, probably a place not unlike Newtown. I remember vividly my first day of kindergarten. My daughter is a teacher in an elementary school, and my grandson, a little boy full of curiosity and life, is now five and is in kindergarten in a small town in Virginia. He went off on his school bus wearing a Santa Claus hat on the day of the Newtown massacre. It shocks me to think that but for the accident of being in the wrong place at the wrong time he might have returned home dead, shot by some maniac who coolly reloaded while executing a classroom full of cowering children.
Inevitably, many of my friends in the antiwar movement have taken Newtown as a metaphor for what the United States is doing all around the world. I understand that, but when the unspeakable happens in a village in Connecticut it has an immediacy for me that Gaza does not. The pictures of the children, teachers, and parents filing out of that school in shock and fear inadvertently conjure up so many memories of small-town life in America that I cannot replicate it by thinking of other horrors. The thought that those little boys and girls had their lives snuffed out for absolutely nothing, that they will not grow and learn about the world, that they will not have children of their own and grow old surrounded by family and loved ones leaves me completely empty.
And even if I know that I cannot fully transfer what I am feeling to the thousands of victims of the cult of American Exceptionalism overseas, I think I do understand how their suffering is not unrelated to what took place in Connecticut. I always opposed George W. Bush’s wars on realist grounds, i.e., that they were based on faulty intelligence, they were disproportionate, and they could not possibly succeed. But I turned passionately antiwar over the death of a child when I saw the front-page newspaper photo of the body of poor little Ali Hussein being dragged out of the rubble of his home in Baghdad back in April 2008, the victim of an errant American bomb. People wrote to the paper complaining that the picture would hurt the war effort, some suggesting that the photo had been staged. I asked myself, “What kind of monsters have we become?” More recently, I was shattered when I looked at the photo of BBC reporter Jihad Masharawi holding his dead 11-month-old son Omar, the grief evident on his face, another innocent victim of Israel’s latest White House–enabled outrage against Gaza.
Who is to blame for the horror? Well, maybe we all are in that we are not marching in the streets in protest, but those in power are surely more culpable than the rest of us. America’s precipitate ethical decline might have started when Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, declared the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children were “worth it” and no one in the mainstream media demanded her resignation. Or it might have been the growing jingoism in the wake of 9/11. Our country’s worship of the military has advanced in lockstep with our evolution into a national-security state in which the dead are trivialized by the euphemism “collateral damage.” The American way of death produces triumphalist war managers such as Gen. David Petraeus who themselves have never experienced combat up close and personal, and it ignores the suffering of the poor bastards who have to try to survive underneath our drones or who face miscarriages and birth defects from our left-behind depleted uranium. Our soldiers in Afghanistan, brought up on a diet of shoot-first, now consider “children with potential hostile intent” acceptable targets. All sensible people worldwide should demand that America’s insistence on the intrinsic righteousness of its rather tattered cause, however that is defined, has got to stop. It’s time to fold up the huge flags at football games and return to the Founders’ view of the military, that it was a necessary evil and nothing to be proud of. Soldiers and Marines do not exist for hurricane relief and to collect Toys for Tots at Christmas. They are trained to kill people, and they are very good at it.
And then there is popular music that exalts violence and the revoltingly graphic videogames in which teens can kill hundreds of enemies using a joystick. Battle by way of a video screen has created a mindset in which eliminating whole categories of adversaries for entertainment has inevitably reduced any moral restraint over the act of killing. The unemployed teenagers put aside their games and naturally morph into assassins in uniform sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Nevada who can spot and kill a suspected bad guy half a world away. The Air Force armchair warriors are now even demanding medals for their service when they should instead be ashamed of what they do, if not fearful of eventually going to prison for war crimes.
In today’s America, the government manages much of the violence. CIA torturers walk free even when an exhaustive report finally reveals that what they did destroyed the lives of many of those on the receiving end while accomplishing nothing but tarnishing the name of the United States. And then there were the renditions, turning suspects over to the torturers in other countries to carry out the heinous act by proxy. Rule of law? Just ask Khaled al-Masri, who was detained by the CIA then tortured and sodomized. When he sought redress through the U.S. courts, he was blocked through the invocation of the state-secrets privilege, an instrument that has been used many more times under President Obama than during the terms in office of George W. Bush, who was generally accused of being unsympathetic to constitutional rights.
And so, Mr. Obama, this has all got to stop. You can do it and the people will support you, as most are tired of the continuous warfare and all the killing. Declare the war on terror over. You can even say that we won if that would help you politically. You do not have to provide lethal aid to Syrian rebels and you do not have to attack Iran. No one in America will be safer if you do so. Bring everybody home. A growing number of your fellow citizens are beginning to understand that America’s increasingly institutionalized viciousness overseas is spilling over and taking root here in the U.S. The devil walks among us. If you can’t see it, you are blind to the reality and maybe it is time to change your advisers, replacing the yes-men and women dedicated to getting you and other Democrats reelected with ordinary people who still possess a moral compass and common sense. It’s not just a question of gun control, which will undoubtedly be the tune that you will play, but rather of what kind of nation we have become in the past 11 years. Twenty children have died in Connecticut, but you have used drones to kill 176 children in Pakistan and Yemen. The U.N. reports that an average of 4.8 Afghan children are killed or injured every day in a war that you should have ended four years ago. Twenty-eight children died in Gaza alone last month in the latest paroxysm of hatred engineered by Israel with the acquiescence of your administration. Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, far from expressing regrets, said they “deserved it.” Do you think the Afghan, Pakistani, and Yemeni kids also deserve it? Most of those dead children are invisible, since there is nothing in the U.S. media commemorating their names and their aspirations, still less about their grieving families, but, perhaps unlike the poor innocents killed in Connecticut, their blood is undeniably on our hands. A nation that is constantly at war will inevitably produce a people that is at war with itself, hardly a consoling message as we approach Christmas.
Read more by Philip Giraldi
- Why Remember Iraq? – December 12th, 2012
- The Protocols for Death – December 5th, 2012
- Netanyahu’s War Crime – November 28th, 2012
- Educating the President – November 21st, 2012
- Israel’s Real Agenda – November 14th, 2012
Johnny in Wi.
December 19th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
This is a fine commentary Phil: Obama has been responsible for the deaths of far more children then the monster in Conn. He is never going to change. The USA was the only one voting with Israel today on expansion of the settlements. As for Obama and gun control? It is all about control. Look at Israel where the Zionists have the guns and everyone else has rocks. Governments have killed 200 million in the last century alone. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao all had gun control. You can be sure that Obama's supporters will have the guns and the rest of us will have rocks. Look at who is pushing hardest for gun control, the zionist midgets Bloomberg and Emmanuel.
F-Bomb
December 19th, 2012 at 11:27 pm
Wow, amazingly right on!!!
RickR30
December 19th, 2012 at 11:36 pm
Well said. America's technological and quality of life advances and development are rendered meaningless by the entrenched culture of death. And as much as America has tried and succeeded in taking the war to them over there somewhere, clearly we aren't escaping violence here.
I don't know if there is diving justice or karma but actions do cause reactions and have consequences. The intentions underlying the actions being completely irrelevant. And if somehow people think America isn't going to suffer from the death and destruction it it causes everywhere, then they are as insane as those who think that starting a war with Iran is going to have no negative impact on israel.
Governments and especially US government have shown again and again that they are downright evil- however one understands that term. And if it sounds nonsensical to connect government actions with the actions of some "lone gunman", one just has to look deeper into the Newtown event. I hadn't until I read Paul Craig Roberts this morning- it made my skin crawl. Let's just say that there a lot of important questions that need to be clarified. The whole thing makes you scratch your head; something is missing. Once you introduce a certain variable, a terrifying, unimaginable picture emerges but one that unfortunately rings true.
Christmas in Connecticut - Unofficial Network
December 20th, 2012 at 12:05 am
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antiwar7
December 20th, 2012 at 12:10 am
A pretty good essay, but why horrified for only the past 11 years? The First Iraq War and sanctions, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo were all pretty nasty, without going into Central and South America, and southeast Asia.
Loose Savage
December 20th, 2012 at 1:35 am
As much as I hate knee-jerk public policy, I do feel these events point out the need for change, with the specific goal of reducing violence: Free cannabis for all!
richard vajs
December 20th, 2012 at 4:45 am
Excellent. The only troubling thing to me is that your theme is absolutely self-obvious, so why aren't more Americans saying the same thing? I believe that it because of moral rot. And the moral rot is worst in Israel – we need to cut all ties with them as their moral rot must be contagious.
Patrick
December 20th, 2012 at 5:48 am
Thank you for raising this issue Mr. Giraldi. It is past time that this issue of how we as a society now built on militarism enculturates our children in warfare. Imagine a study of the U.S. by neutral cultural anthropologists or social psychologists. It would find a country in which younger people, including the mentally ill, have matured through adolescence with the continuous celebration of the so-called military virtues and perpetual war. This militarism is even more intensely enculturated in our children than the children of Sparta, and Germany and Japan in the 30's and 40's In fact, breaking through the “defenses” of an elementary school, to an ill mind, could be the acting out of a celebrated raid which is the subject of a recent movie. As our culture celebrates the “warrior” so intensely, it is not remarkable that this has a psychological effect upon the individual members of the culture. As the vast majority of our citizens only act out these warrior "values" by reading The Weekly Standard. But it is not too speculative, I believe, that some individuals might “mimic” what they see as being a warrior. One more expense of permanent war perhaps?
ohio ralph
December 20th, 2012 at 6:23 am
The root source of militarism is fiat money. Fiat money creates a nation of speculators as the continual
depreciation of the monetary standard creates moral hazard. Add to that the "banker settlements"
when they are caught which makes such activity nothing more than a cost of doing business. Of course all the debt the bankers create finances the military which infects this institution. Add to this
the drug culture fostered by the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry and you feed the culprits of this most recent school violence. All of this destroys the capital formation structure thereby justifying the continued intervention due to the need to do "something."
The cycle just continues until a collapse occurs which cannot come soon enough.
JoaoAlfaiate
December 20th, 2012 at 6:36 am
Killing our kids with a military type assault rifle and dressed in camo: The chickens coming home to roost, simple as that.
skulz fontaine
December 20th, 2012 at 6:48 am
Very well put Mr. Giraldi. There is something seriously wrong in America and Newtown is merely a symptom.
Cynthia
December 20th, 2012 at 7:57 am
I will gladly be for gun control when all of the following conditions are met:
1. All criminals are disarmed.
2. All police are disarmed.
3. The FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, BATF and every other Federal and State agency is disarmed.
4. Every governor, mayor and all politicians surrender their guns and their armed security.
5. All guns are confiscated from the military and stored in regional warehouse under the same security as our nuclear weapons.
6. All politically connected people who can afford armed security are disarmed.
Then, and only then will I be for gun control.
Articles for Thursday » Scott Lazarowitz's Blog
December 20th, 2012 at 8:13 am
[...] Philip Giraldi: Christmas in Connecticut [...]
Steve
December 20th, 2012 at 8:33 am
//when the unspeakable happens in a village in Connecticut it has an immediacy for me that Gaza does not//
Not for me. I feel the same under both instances. Connecticut children or no more and no less precious than Gaza children or Afghani children or the children of any other country that we send our death machines to. If people in the US could feel just as outraged over the hundreds of thousands that we kill as the 20 in in Connecticut maybe they would demand an end to all of this.
Generalissimo X
December 20th, 2012 at 10:12 am
YES WE CAN!
Lorraine
December 20th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Absolutely spot on, as always. Why can't we get Phil, Kelley V., Ray McGovern, etc. on the morning talk shows, instead of the steady diet of the pro-war troika and their cabal of talking heads? The mainstream media has simply got to stop ignoring voices of reason, such as those on this forum. I think I will initiate a petition to NBC, et al, to bring in some new commentators. And in conclusion, let it be said, God bless and comfort all the grieving families, everywhere, who are victims of this bloodlust that we have wrought.
Generalissimo X
December 20th, 2012 at 10:18 am
a great essay the expresses a lot of frustration we are all feeling. here's something that needs to be looked at in much closer detail is the role of big pharma and ssri drugs. these dangerous psychotropic drugs are being given to millions upon millions including children and our troops. it says right on the label they cause violent and suicidal behavior. this lanza kid was the latest lunatic to be heavily medicated on these drugs and yet nary a mention by the msm. why have autism rates exploded? why are the suicide rates of returning troops (many of whom are on ssris) threw the roof? rather than bite the corporate hand that sponsors these demons, they quickly take another chapter from the 9-11 playbook. it's not about what happened, the facts, or finding out the truth. seriously go youtube 9-11 coverage..all you hear is the mantra "the world has changed and we'll have to give up certain rights now for protection." seriously, it's all over the place. consequently we get the patriot act (where did this thing ever come from??) and kiss the 1st, 4-8th amendments good bye. now it's the 2nd terms with the media serving as helen lovejoy from the simpsons "won't someone please think of the children!?!?"
Christmas in Connecticut by Philip Giraldi — Antiwar.com | Merolog Web Host
December 20th, 2012 at 10:46 am
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PEACE EVER AFTER
December 20th, 2012 at 11:11 am
You can shove your gun up you know where.
PEACE EVER AFTER
December 20th, 2012 at 11:17 am
I also agree .This is one of your best. AIPAC and NRA are like 2 cancers destroying America.
Seacond amendment should be repealed it is used by the gun lobby to hide behind. It might have been OK when people lived in log cabins and used muskets.
baz
December 20th, 2012 at 11:22 am
i am a keen advocate of democracy by referendum, like the swiss system…
2 years ago the swiss had a very sensitive vote (by referendum) over gun control. every canton (state had its own referendum and the issue was decided with only a handful of cantons deciding not to ban fire arms. This is real democracy. We should do the same here.
That is a real democracy, not the sham dictatorship we have here
PEACE EVER AFTER
December 20th, 2012 at 11:23 am
It is all right to point out what Obama is doing wrong but remember most of us voted for Obama as the lessor of 2 evils. Especially here in WI. Romney would have been much worse.
baz
December 20th, 2012 at 11:31 am
people who so faithfully invoke their constitutional right to bare arms are neither rational nor evolved. The human race is needs to adopt a new mantra for the 21st century. one aimed at increasing global scientific and social/moral co-operation for creating a better world. The days of nation states and racism must end otherwise we and our planet are doomed. We must focus on building the technologies which will allow us to continue to flourish as a civilization without destroying our planet or ourselves. the human race may not last another 500 years. has anybody thought about that far into the future? what the world would be like? it is time to end the violence, racism and injustice. we need a new moral compass in this country….
DrRudyKastner
December 20th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Right after the Newtown tragedy, it’s curious how our government is quick to propose policy that ultimately weakens the citizen’s ability to protect themselves from corrupt institutions and government. Yet when Wall Street and bankster institutions wrought financial destruction all over this earth, our government was quick to make them whole again with a $16 trillion dollar bailout and suddenly became blind to obvious financial criminality. Who or what is the government really protecting?
Google “Operation Gladio”
<b>Christmas</b> in Connecticut by Philip Giraldi — Antiwar.com | Merolog Web Host
December 20th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
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Bruce Richardson
December 20th, 2012 at 1:59 pm
I have personally witnessed the terror in the Afghan countryside amongst the population as a result of the Soviet Scud missle program and of the Soviet explosive devices dropped from aircraft that resembled toys, the resultant effect was many, many limbless children and incessant terror! Both these tactics are nothing less than state-sponsored terrorism. No here we are, the US seems bent on replicating this horror against the civilian population. Our Predator missile program and invasion/occupation has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties in a country that had no role in 9/11. And by our logic, termed "Operation Enduring Freedom", we are combatting terrorism????
We glamorize violence in this country…too many Rambos on Capitol Hill who have not ever heard a shot fired in anger…eager to go and play war, but with the children of others.
Loose Savage
December 20th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
This sounds too much like a prescription for war to end all injustice.
conumishu
December 20th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
A troll can be easily spotted even from an ocean and a continent away.
conumishu
December 20th, 2012 at 4:35 pm
A morally corrupt ruling class would have no qualms to help events like the assasinations in Newton happening. I'm not saying it was so and I look with suspicion at certain reports that are surfacing about a second gunner or the "manchurization" of the official murderer, but the speed and the magnitude of the anti 2nd amendment campaign (straight to the core, no more beating around the bush) goes well beyond the usual hypocrisy and useless tantrum the politicos display. Not to mention the stalinist era reactions amidst the "working class" media picked "representatives". It is quite credible "they" simply are after your guns exploiting a more than welcome, in their grand scheme, tragic event.
davidgrayling
December 20th, 2012 at 4:47 pm
Cynthia, I'll vote for you.
"Who is to blame for the horror? Well, maybe we all are," says Phil. Yes, Phil, what happened is a product of the sick American society, a society that is responsible for 20-30 million deaths around the world since WW2 ended.
Every American must accept responsibility for what their nation has done and is doing. They must get rid of their current Government and instal one that has some values, some human decency!
Jane
December 20th, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Well, said Steve – I agree absolutely! Every child's life is unique and precious.
Avi_G.
December 20th, 2012 at 9:29 pm
I don't understand how a child's murder in Gaza can FEEL different than a child's murder in small town, USA.
If you find it difficult or impossible to be shaken by events half a world away as you do by events 20 miles away, then perhaps it's time to look within, perhaps something is amiss — especially when the killing of innocent children in some remote country is usually funded by your tax dollars, whereas the killing of innocent children in Connecticut, isn't funded by your tax dollars.
Why is it so difficult for some to have empathy on an equal level? Perhaps if we did away with these mental barriers, we would be better human beings.
blue
December 20th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
When I was in kindergarten, I didn't like it. One day all us kids were outside and I seen my mother off in the distance cutting across the field, I screamed and yelled and screamed and she never heard me. She was too far away. I was stuck with all of them when I wanted to be with my mother. Teachers who think they are the childs mother or father are only kidding themselves and you for their job, While children might like them I can't imagine they love them. big difference.
In high school the bitch asked me if I thought my daughter was special? Should have see her face when I said "Yes"
Vincent Nunes
December 21st, 2012 at 6:44 am
Pharmaceuticals equals MURDER.
The families of the six adults murdered will also have a very bleak holiday season.
The world is not ending today; but for those families in Newtown, their worlds are definitely in upheaval.
Debt slavery must be eradicated from our shores – before 1913, the United States was as good as it gets, Andrew Jackson struck a blow for the working man.
A man who produces something of value, or helps to keeps things that produce something of value, are worth more and should be compensated more than one who just moves monies around. Banks are no longer "risking money"; indeed, if there's any risk, it's borne upon We The People.
Phil, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years!
Christmas in Connecticut
December 21st, 2012 at 9:50 pm
[...] http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/12/19/christmas-in-connecticut/ [...]
Christmas in Connecticut « Libertarian Hippie
December 22nd, 2012 at 9:25 am
[...] [...]
Howard
December 22nd, 2012 at 12:25 pm
One of the only things highly overlooked in this great article is the culpability of the Pharmaceutical companies, as there is never any mention of what prescribed drugs perpetrators of such heinous and tragic acts have been taking. It is no secret that many tranquilizers and anti-depressants can have very dangerous side-effects, yet there are gag laws on disclosing this vitally important information–I believe these laws are written by/for the drug companies to avoid prosecution and boycotting. To imply that conditions such as Autism, or 'anti-social behavior' is misleading if it is not coupled with the types of medications prescribed for these individuals.
Michael Gillespie
December 22nd, 2012 at 10:42 pm
Extraordinarily well-informed and perceptive commentary, but that is no surprise. It's what Philip Giraldi does.
The only thing I would add is that America's epidemic of gun crime and gun massacres is largely a function of the deluge of violent media content that informs American popular culture and American attitudes about guns and gun violence. Violence is central to American popular culture because violence is central to the entertainment industry’s most lucrative revenue streams. Where do American men and boys get their ideas about masculinity? We get many of them primarily from the entertainment industry, from screens large and small, from television, movies, and video games, which are filled with shooters.
The deluge of hideously violent Big Media entertainment product on TV, in movies, and in video games desensitizes regular viewers to violence, persuades naive and impressionable audiences that violence is the preferred method of problem solving, creates a social and political climate of fear and loathing, and promotes aggressive attitudes and violent behaviors across society. (Suggested Reading: Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment, by Sissela Bok; Stop Teaching our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action against TV, Movie, and Video Game Violence, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria DeGaetano; and A is for Ox: The Collapse of Literacy and the Rise of Violence in an Electronic Age, by Barry Sanders.)
Violent entertainment product is not merely obscenely lucrative for the big, socially-influential, and politically powerful media corporations that produce and profit from it – it is also politically useful. The demands of those who promote war are best met by a populace that is angry and fearful, aggressive, blinded by religious and racial stereotyping, and open to suggestions that violence and war represent answers to their problems. Violent media content freighted with stereotypes and political propaganda – programming that is socially destabilizing – accomplishes all of that and more. (Suggested reading: Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture, by Jack G. Shaheen)
Media violence is the glamorous, seductive, and deadly gift that media moguls give America every day, whether we want it or not, because, even though it is destroying much if not all that is good and decent about America, it enriches and empowers a very few (http://www.globalissues.org/article/159/media-conglomerates-mergers-concentration-of-ownership).