20160629 (terrorists)

Doctors Without Borders' hospital in Kunduz Afghanistan, bombed by an American gunship, killing doctors and patients--yet to receive an independent investigation

Krista Stone, my daughter-in-law,

Had posted a night photo of 

Illuminated Instanbul on Facebook

Just a few hours before the world

Shook with the deaths and injuries

Of a terrorist attack at Ataturk, the

Instanbul airport. I wrote her moments

Ago that despite the horror of seeing

Such an event through security 

Camera lenses we must still

Recognize we too contribute to

The body count of these wars.

Our Hellfire missiles and our

Cluster bombs wreak blinding

Energy on their victims as

Destructively as the suicide

Vests of terrorists, perhaps more

So. But we are not exposed to the 

Carnage seconds later through

Sophisticated communications

Networks. I’m sure the Syrians,

Afghanis, Pakistanis, Iraqis, and

Yemenis have such films ready but

Western news media will not 

Receive nor transmit them,

Lest videos of our slaughter weaken

The resolve of the Western powers.

As surely they would much like 

When brutality toward “our side” 

Inflames our fervor for their

Deaths. There should be some

Fair and balanced reporting from

The abattoirs of conflict to allow

Us better to grasp what our war

Dollars are buying. Showing us

Only one side is a propaganda

Campaign to keep the war drums

Beating for the citizenry who are

Paying for it big time with their 

Taxes, and for the unfortunate

Other 1%, with their sons and 

Daughters, who if they return

At all, come back broken in

Body and mind and who often see

Suicide as the only way ultimately

To quell their demons. What of 

Those on the opposite side? 

Surely they see the suffering and

Desire its end as desperately as

We. Or have we rendered them so

Inhuman as not to want anything

Like peace, love, family, and

Brotherhood—children who are

Sound, whole, and entire, who

Can dream of a fulfilling life

As we do for our own? The 

Manuals of war consistently

Point out that dehumanizing

The enemy is essential to enable

Soldiers to kill at the corporals’ 

Bidding. “Fire! Kill the Huns/

Japs/slant-eyes/redskins/Filipinos/

Gooks/ragheads.” Horrifically

The list goes on. Some joke we

Teach our population geography

By simply staging a war there--

Bosnia, Somalia, Grenada. We

Have far too many brave soldiers

And not enough courageous

Diplomats. War is a seductive

Mistress who is never satisfied

With a little killing. All must die—

The losers physically, the victors

Morally.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016