The Humanitarian?

 

One of the morally revolting things about war (one of thousands) is that we define loss of life by how many people are killed on "our" side, while ignoring the reality that all of America's war in the last 100 years have resulted in far, far, far more "enemy" civilians being killed than American soldiers.

In addition to American soldiers and local civilians, enemy soldiers are also killed.  Enemy soldiers can be seen as terrorists, as people who get what's coming to them, or as people who are defending their homes from an invader.  For the purpose of this argument, I will put this issue aside and focus on civilians rather than tackle the more complicated issue of whether resisting invasion makes one a "terrorist".

Another revolting truth is that our "leaders" who set these bloodbaths in motion almost never make any reference to the death sown by their actions.  Each individual American who dies in war is lionized as having made the "ultimate sacrifice", as having died for us, while the far larger number of innocent civilians killed are either ignored entirely or chalked up to "collateral damage".

So how utterly twisted is it that the only major American political figure to speak empathetically about these faceless dead, indeed to speak about them at all, is.......Donald Trump.

 "Look, the war is a disaster.  The war should not have been entered into.  To lose all of those thousands and thousands of people, on our side and their side.  I mean, you have Iraqi kids, not only our soldiers, walking around with no legs, no arms, no faces.  All for no reason"
7-13-04

Aside from the unfortunate phrasing of people "walking around with no legs", this is an example of a fleetingly rare moral clarity.  The man largely understood to be a self-absorbed blowhard, a heartless industrialist, a racist, sexist Islamophobe is the only person with the moral clarity and bravery to even mention the "Iraqi kids".

"Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed.  And what about the people coming back with no arms and legs? Not to mentions the other side.  All those Iraqi kids who've been blown to pieces.  And it turned out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong.  All this for nothing."

8-13-14

These two quotes were uttered 10 years apart.  Remember this when Hillary Clinton insists that Trump wasn't "really" against the war.  And keep in mind that Hillary's change of heart about the war had nothing to do with heart or humanity.  It was pure politics, as was her vote to unleash the dogs of hell in the first place.

It is exceedingly difficult to find virtue in Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton, but Trump's unique willingness to acknowledge the humanity of the tens upon tens of thousands of young people who have been physically or psychologically destroyed by our actions stands out prominently amid the moral desert that nearly all of our politicians inhabit.  

I am actually moved by this glimmer of humanity, but I am just as distraught that it is so rare.  In terms of the most basic humanity, nearly all of our "leaders" are blind.  How bizarre that Donald Trump, of all people, may in fact be the one-eyed man.