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WaPo: Those Dead And Wounded Afghans Do Not Exist
One big problem with U.S. foreign policy is that foreigners, unless they are falsely comparable to Hitler like Saddam, Gaddhafi or Ahmedinejad, do not exist in the mind of the U.S. people. The public seems not to care about the suffering of the people its rulers maim and kill.
But that is not really the fault of the U.S. people. It is a major fault of the media which only seldom present the view from the recipient side of the various U.S. bombing campaigns. Those people seem not exist.
The Washington Post just posted: 12 Turkish troops killed in chopper crash in Kabul
The report was filed from Kabul by Ernesto Londoño, Friday, March 16, 11:14 AM.
It begins:
KABUL — Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed Friday when their helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Kabul, officials said. It was the deadliest incident for international troops in Afghanistan so far this year.
A statement on the Turkish General Staff's Web site said the aircraft appears to have crashed accidentally, rather than under enemy fire.
All 12 troops killed were Turks, the statement said, making the crash by far the biggest loss of life for Turkish troops in Afghanistan during the conflict.
Not one word of the report mentions that besides the Turkish troops two Afghans were also killed and three wounded as the helicopter crashed onto their house:
Abdul Qadus, a local resident, said “there were two helicopters in the air passing through the area when one of them, all of a sudden, went down, hitting a house.”
He said two women, one in neighbouring house, were killed and another two women and a child were wounded in the accident.
There is not one word on that in the two hundred word Washington Post report. That is not because it was filled as facts still evolved. Various tweets from reporters in Kabul had the civilians deaths included almost immediatly. But death and carnage of Afghans seem not to exist for the Washington Post and therefore not for its readers.
Below is a screenshot of the complete report from the Washington Post website.
 (click the image for a full size version)
The public seems not to care about the suffering of the people its rulers maim and kill.
Generally, true.
It’s also true that, just as one example… here in Albuquerque NM, in last 2 years the number of kids, 18 or younger, living on the street, has increased from +/- 4k, to 10k.
Within that group… and, in this state, a plethora of very capable “groups”, the purpose of which, it so somehow improve the “lot” of “street kids”… they have said, for decades, that most of those kids, they find out… were severely abused. Anything from beatings from someone in delusional rage, to fucked in the ass when they were still dependent on someone for simple things like a meal, clothes, or simply an opportunity to have “space” so they could learn to live in their growing body.
I mention this, not to raise awareness of advocate for the homeless. Rather, to point out… that your statement: “public seems not to care” is a general condition, not specific to the issue you are discussing here.
The malaise permeates… everything, really.
For example, NM is generally regarded as, compared to the other states… poor. Per capita income, for some time, has been in the bottom 10%.
That number is deceptive.
For example, we have public and private institutions here, the (ostensible) purpose being… various singular, or combined, disciplines in science, to bring forth highly technological “tools”. Los Alamos… most of you know that story from it’s inception. Their science was cutting edge, but their work product resulted in very narrow applications, possible, from their discoveries.
There are tons… literally, of millionaires, having “made” their millions based on discoveries in that Lab… then, one person here, another there… seeing a possibility from “something” in their work… went out, and privately… built something else.
Tons of ’em, over recent decades, from Los Alamos.
Same from Sandia Labs… I know a bunch of these people. MIT physicists, and others… regarded, by their work product over long periods of time, as distinctively capable in their given craft.
Yet… of all the people I know from these groups, not a single one can articulate anything approaching an “anatomy” of the “financial crisis”. Same with the homeless thing I described… much less even an awareness of that “condition”.
We have here, also, a very large Air Force Base… Kirtland. It was largely brought into being, so that the bombs made as the work product in Los Alamos, for efforts in WWII, could be transported.
Somewhere about 30 years ago, a pipe connection trains, delivering various fuels for Kirtland’s Aircraft, began leaking. This pipe, delivered the fuel from train cars, to storage tanks over the course of approx 1/2 mile.
This leak, over 30 years, has been estimated to have dispersed +/- 8m gallons of fuel.
Albuquerque, for a long time, enjoyed amongst the highest water quality in the US. We live on top of a huge aquifer, and most of our water comes from that.
It is known, that the Air Force knew of this leak, at least, by 1991. They were warned of it’s consequences and possible hazards to our population, and… they buried it, did nothing.
We know, now… that various constituent parts of that fuel, have not only made their way into the water supply… which, the top level of (the aquifer) begins +/- 500 ft. below ground level. What is also know, is that various known carcinogens from that fuel, have migrated… at minimum, to a perimeter roughly in a radius from the original leak… of +/- 14 miles to the east and north east.
The population, in Albuquerque… is less then 1% aware that this situation exists. The Air Force (w/DOD, and several other agencies) has takes a “contractor” to “fix it”. The Air Force has said, publicly… through meetings and local press, that this contractor… Shaw, is “fixing it”.
In fact… Shaw is not fixing it. They have 2 “experts” in our area, having worked on this “problem” since early 2010. Shaw’s contract stipulates, they must have a “plan” to clean up the water supply, by April of 2014. Thus, it could be said… Shaw has been tasked with developing a “plan” for a “plan”, to clean up a waters supply for nearly a million dependent people, most of which don’t have a clue that, about 500 feet below them, there is a carcinogenic jet fuel plume migrating further, horizontally, into the water they rely on, every single day.
…
My point is, B, that not caring about one issue… as I see it, is not the primary problem. I don’t say this, really, as a criticism. Rather, again… just trying to point out that, by highlighting one condtion here (Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Palestinians… or terrfied street kids in Albuquerque), it has become increasing clear that, the problem we face is not lack of awareness of “this”, or “that”.
It is, rather, not just lack of awareness… which obviously, must be a precondition to solving any of these “things”.
Rather… after simply providing the “stuff” so that some awareness… just the human awareness in one individual here, then one there… that from there, somehow, each realizing they do indeed, have opportunities themselves, to begin something which will make things a little better, here… or there.
…
So then, just my $0.02 worth… whole bunch of words, trying as best I can, to illuminate more clearly, a means by which… over time, obviously, what is needed amongs people, so that they can collectively… meaning one here, and one there… each of themselves aligned and aware… and, in that awareness, each one seeing some path for doing something, that makes things a little better…
Hmmm…
But that is not really the fault of the U.S. people.
In my view… that, really, is the wrong conclusion. Taken hold and assumed by many, that condition more or less guarantees perpetuation of the malaise.
The question, to be resolved… it, at least to me, self evident withing all this. It is the same question, for everybody… everywhere. The individual circumstances, wherever one may be, seem to tell to many indviduals that… there is, nothing, they can do, to alter “things”, withing their general circumstances. They need “help”.
Personally, I don’t think so. In fact… I know it, w/certainty.
I know it, because… in little and big things, I have found… that almost everyone around me, that I participate with in “whatever”, is far more capable… of doing so many things, that they “forgot” they could do. I have found, that, in seeing how they have resolved to not care, often, I am able to “show” them, that in fact, they do care… but they forgot.
And, I’ve found that… out of this, a whole lot of folks have gone out, and done stuff, that made things better for some others in their particular environment.
That, in my view, is the real game. Do… doing. Clear eyed, chosen, doing. It just… works.
Posted by: jdmckay | Mar 18 2012 14:54 utc | 30
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(click the image for a full size version)