Children of God

According to Colin Powell, the purpose of the United States military is to "apply state violence." (Meet the Press, June 10, 2007). Along these same lines, Carl von Clausewitz wrote that "war is the domain of physical exertion and suffering." One could perhaps rationalize the increasing magnitude of human suffering in Iraq if this were indeed a "war of necessity." However, it is now clear that war with Iraq was always a "choice," never a "necessity." There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There was no imminent threat to the United States or any other country. In the July 30th issue of The Nation, Chris Hedges & Laila Al-Arian summarize interviews that The Nation conducted with fifty combat veterans of the war in Iraq. These interviews suggest that indiscriminate violence directed towards Iraqi civilians may be the "rule" rather than the "exception." It is also common for military personnel to refer to Iraqis as camel jocks, rag-heads, and sand-niggers. One of the interviewed soldiers stated that "if they don't speak English and they have darker skin, they're not as human as us, so we can do what we want." When the entire population of a Muslim nation is unceremoniously demoted to a sub-human status in order to rationalize indiscriminate brutality against innocent human beings, we have clearly lost our moral compass.