aussiebob

I can't get this image out of my head. I found it while I was looking for pictures to use in a Fark Photoshop competition, and it's been haunting me ever since.

The girl is dead, of course. We killed her. I don't know exactly where or when. The site the photo is on is a hate site, it's trying to generate hatred of jews and Americans, so it's long on emotion and short on facts.

It doesn't matter though, we killed this little girl, and we killed the other people in the pile of bodies behind her. Obviously there are other people involved. A pilot or bombardier pressed the button that released the bomb. I suppose they have to take some responsibility, but the decision to kill had already been made for them. There was probably a commander who gave the order, and a general who set the battle plans, and they have their responsibility as well. Military leaders are still just instruments though, and their purpose and limitations are well known. It was their civilian overseers who set them loose and pointed them at this girl.

I can't accept that this can ever be part of any solution. She had no part in opression or terrorism, and her death won't make anyone safer. She's just a little girl. Of course, now the bereaved will hate, the survivors, the crippled, those who care for them will hate. The site hosting this photo is evidence enough for that. The young men and women who drop these bombs and fire the rockets and artillery must be able to shut out the consequences of their actions from their minds. They'd have to - you couldn't live with something like that pile of bodies on your concience and remain sane. They'll return home and try to carry on, but they're damaged, and they'll do damage to our society too.

We let them do it. You, me, my friends, your friends. We let our govenments become corrupt and venal, we sat back and let our information and news sources become part of the problem. We did nothing when self-serving sociopaths took over the administration. We gave them carte blanche to kill this little girl.

They are going to do it again of course, and we'll let them. It's too hard to do anything about it, and they're too deeply entrenched in the whole dirty political system. We should be able to take back our democracy, but it's all too hard, so we'll let it all happen over and over.

Of course, we won't be alone in that. The bereaved, the angry and the frustrated on the other side will be trying ever more creative ways of blowing us up as well.

So take a long look at that little body there in the arms of her grandfather, and say to yourself "That's my girl". Because she is, you know.


That's all.