Fascinoma

In fairness, I can say with a lot of confidence that, were I a grunt at the front, where people were often, actively trying to kill me, my attitude would pretty soon morph into: Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out. This is one of the reasons I've never volunteered for any of our overseas adventures, and also one of the reasons why I've been opposed to virutally all of them. You put people in that position, you're gonna get that kind of behavior. But the Ozzie and Harriets of America seem to believe that all our boys go over there and maintain a Tom-Hanks-style stoic chill. We're just here to help y'all be free -- goddamnit! Americans can't understand why we're not greeted as liberators -- because they never see tapes like the Wikileaks release, that show us in essence: utterly clueless, misunderstanding all we see, yet deadly, raining death from above on all and sundry because it's too dangerous or troublesome to actually figure out who the enemy is, if anyone. Once they're dead, of course, we can most definitely be sure they are enemy, usually without fear of contradiction.

In fairness too, I'll bet the boys who do the killing close up, and take the real chances, aren't so cavalier about it as these helicopter guys, who probably have it relatively cush, and are way out of range in most instances. (I would bet large dollars that the combat-mortality rate among gunship crews is nearly nil.) So basically, these laughing boys are just hot-rodding thrill killers at this point, drunk with their power to kill with impunity, and really getting off.

As we brace ourselebvs for a number of open-carry militia rallies here in the DC area, it occurs to me -- how do these right wingers feel about choppers just opening up on everyone in the vicinity of anyone bearing arms, or anyone coming to the rescue of anyone who was unlucky enough to even be near someone bearing arms when the blasting began? I guess only American have Second Amendment rights.

Ode to an Apache

They are not our brave aviators
nor our young soldiers, too soon
old from too many tours
gravely saving and taking life.
They’re idiot kids playing
video games in the safety
of their levitated La-Z-Boys,
reveling in the lethal evils, clean,
laughably abstract at this distance,
which our technology makes possible.