Kill Them All and Let John Wayne Sort Them Out

Dear Goddess/God/Allah/Giant Wombat in Heaven, this shit is truly too obscene to be believed--as in I honestly thought it was satire when I first read it--I literally did not believe that it was for real.

But it is.

By way of the irreplaceable Amanda, we find Glen Greenwald's analysis of recent completely un-fucking-hinged rantings by various unrestrained-warfare advocates. That this kind of chest-beating nationalistic howling gets published in the likes of the Wall Street Journal makes me weep for American Conservatism. If I saw something this repugnant to human decency as the cover story on Mother Jones, I'd want to turn in my Official Jr. Liberal Decoder Ring.

The worst is from Jeff Goldstein:

Which is why there are times when we really should turn off the “smart” bombs and show our seriousness by putting the world on notice that, when we believe the situation calls for it, we are willing to ignore the inevitable bad press and the howls of protest from human rights groups, and exhibit a show of strength and military professionalism that is politically disinterested and tactically thorough and lethal....

...the only way to disabuse the enemy of the notion that we are constrained by a moral calculus that makes little sense in urban combat situations is to refuse to show the kind of restraint they have come to anticipate and count on.

Let's parse that real quickly:

• the Geneva convention, et al., are only to be followed as a tactic for avoiding "bad press" and the "howling" of groups like Amnesty International who have done more than the USA ever has to promote human rights.*
• Indiscriminately blowing the living fuck out of people regardless of their standing as civilians is the essence of "military professionalism."
• Callous disregard for human rights, Geneva convention, et al., are signs of "seriousness" (I guess all those times in the 70s and 80s when we berated the USSR for their atrocious human rights record, we were what, "foolin' around?")
• "Moral calculus" is situational. That is, morals are great as long as they don't get in the way of achieving your aims. When they're inconvenient (as in urban combat), fuck 'em.
  

Jeez. And they wonder why half the planet hates us. We run around calling ourselves the Bringers of Democracy and Freedom to the Rest of the Benighted World, but we're fine with telling Amnesty International to go fuck themselves if we suddenly feel like we’re above basic human decency.

And don’t, not even for one second, give me that “But the terrorists think they’re above basic human decency…” crap. Well, no fucking shit. Newsflash: those guys are slime. They are murderous, torturing, head-cuttin'-off car-bombin--the-fuck-out-of-little-kids slime. The fact that they think they're above basic human decency is what makes them the murderous fucks that they are. And guess what--we don't want to be like them. For the last time, we are supposed to be The Good Guys.

Now, John McCain may be a pandering weasel, but you have to admit the guy has his moments. Like when he proposed--on the Senate floor--the radical notion that the self-proclaimed Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Human Rights might want to go on the books as opposing torture by their own armed forces:

We stand for something more in the world – a moral mission, one of freedom and democracy and human rights at home and abroad. We are better than these terrorists, and we will we win. The enemy we fight has no respect for human life or human rights. They don’t deserve our sympathy…

…but this isn’t about who they are. This is about who we are. These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies.

Emphasis mine. Think about that–”These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies.” If we can’t at least pretend to distinguish ourselves from our enemies, why would we expect the rest of the world to do so?

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*Believe it or not, I am aware that we played an important role in defeating the Nazis (though not nearly as important as we'd like to believe). But if you look at in the balance, I think we don't have nearly as much to be proud of as we ought to. In our favor: Germany, South Korea, etc. Counted against us: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines, Iran under the Shah, etc.. Considering the absolutely callous disregard for human rights that we have traditionally shown (except when it serves our political and/or economic interests) I don't think we come out ahead of AI.