The mainstream media is publishing the standard, predictable
explanations for the latest shooting rampage, this one against Republicans
playing baseball in a park in Alexandria, Virginia. The two most popular are
the right of people to own guns and political rage.
As with every other act of random killings here in the United
States, the media misses the big one: The culture of ongoing violence that the
national-security establishment has made a permanent part of America’s
governmental structure.
For 27 continuous years, the Pentagon and the CIA have been
killing people in the Middle East and Afghanistan. That is a long time to be
killing people. And not just a few people. When we include the hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi children who were killed by the 11 years of sanctions on
Iraq, the number of people killed by U.S. forces surely exceed a million.
Granted, not the 6 million killed in the Holocaust, but nonetheless, a very
large number of people killed.
Add to the death toll the countless people injured and maimed.
Add to that the many who have had their homes or businesses destroyed. Add to that
the number of people who have fled to Europe to escape the violence. Add to
that the many who have been killed by the civil wars that U.S. interventionism
has unleashed. The number of people who have suffered from the ravages of U.S.
governmental violence almost certainly is in the millions.
Through it all, the attitude here has been that as long as the
killing is taking place over there, it wouldn’t have any effect on people here
at home. Life here would go on as normal, especially since people here, protected
by the U.S. media, wouldn’t have to see photographs of the dead and injured
over there.
Through it all, Americans have effusively thanked the troops for
their “service,” which has consisted of killing people in the process of
purportedly defending our country and protecting our freedom.
The fact that it has been a lie from the very beginning has been
deemed irrelevant and immaterial, especially because many people, reinforced by
the media and their public officials, have convinced themselves that it’s not a
lie. But the fact is: Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan ever attacked the United
States or tried to take away our freedom. The same applies to Libya and Syria
and every other regime in the Middle East. The notion has been: Just let the
Pentagon and the CIA do whatever they think is necessary, killing as many
people as they want, and just keep thanking the troops for their service.
Whenever there has been terrorist retaliation during the past 27
years of foreign interventionism, the life of the lie has continued. Each time
there has been a terrorist attack, U.S. officials have immediately proclaimed
that it had nothing to do with their 27-year killing spree. It’s all been
because foreigners hate America for its “freedom and values.” In the process,
many Americans lapped it up and just kept thanking the troops for their
service.
But that’s not the only impact of the death and destruction
produced by foreign interventionism. As I have long pointed out, the culture of
constant killing and violence that the U.S. government has unleashed in that
part of the world inevitably affects the temperament of people here at home.
How can it be otherwise? When one’s government is constantly killing people,
especially without any remorse or regret, how can that ongoing violence not
seep into the subconscious of people here at home?
Every person has his dark side. For most people, it is deeply
submerged and controlled. When things go wrong, they might get angry and lose
their temper but they don’t manifest their anger through violence.
But there are other people whose rage is just beneath the
surface, read to explode. When society is normal, you never hear about those
people. They just go on with their lives without initiating violence against
anyone.
But American society is not normal. It is a society in which its
government has been killing people on a massive scale on a regular basis for 27
years. It’s that culture of violence that the Pentagon and the CIA have made a
permanent part of America’s governmental structure that sets off those people
whose rage is just beneath the surface.
I have long pointed to Switzerland as a counter-example of this
phenomenon.
The Swiss have many of the same values as the American people.
Yet, notice something about Switzerland: No terrorist attacks,
and rarely any acts of political gun violence, like what happened in Alexandria
yesterday.
It’s important to point out a big similarity between the United
States and Switzerland: widespread gun ownership among the populace. Thus, if
that were the root cause of violence in America, it would stand to reason that
it would be the root cause of violence in Switzerland. There has to be another
explanation.
The explanation for widespread violence in America and its
absence in Switzerland lies in the big differences between Switzerland and the
United States: the Swiss government has not been killing people in the Middle
East and Afghanistan for 27 consecutive years and the U.S. government has. The
Swiss military is limited to protecting Switzerland. The U.S. military isn’t
limited to protecting the United States. The Swiss government doesn’t intervene
in the affairs of other nations. The U.S. government does.
That’s why the Swiss live fairly functional lives. That’s why
Americans live very dysfunctional lives.
As long as the U.S. government’s killing spree in the Middle
East and Afghanistan continues, Americans will continue to live in a society
characterized by violence. Get used to it. Living the life of the lie will not
change that. The only thing that will help restore a healthy, functional
society to our land is to bring the troops home without permitting them to
kill, injure, maim, or destroy even one more person.
Reprinted
with permission from The Future of Freedom Foundation.
Jacob
Hornberger [send
him mail] is founder and president of The Future of Freedom
Foundation.
Copyright ©
2017 The Future
of Freedom Foundation
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