Getting our hands dirty

ccdavis is right. We’ve found ourselves a way to conduct a war without getting our hands dirty. Or so it appears. JB asks who else was killed in the drone attacks. He means, of course, who else was killed that was important (to the fight). No mention of women and children.

In much of India, if you want to eat chicken (or any meat), you go to the shop where they have live chickens (in coops) and point out the one you want. They’ll take it out and give it to you right then and there; or they’ll tell you to come back in 20 minutes and they’ll have it all cut up and ready for you. My squeamish wife refuses to point out a victim. Therefore, when in India, we become vegetarians.

Drone strikes are one more step removed from the grit of war. In addition, there’s the potential for misinformation, and false reporting being disseminated. Suppose you leave the chicken stall and the vendor puts your choice of chicken back in the coop; and wraps up the pieces of another chicken, that may have been killed hours earlier, to give you when you return 20 minutes later.

In any case, drone strikes don’t work in culture or civil wars. It might be said that we here in America are engaged in a culture war. We’ve reached a point even beyond using drones. Instead, we use our elected officials as drones so we don’t have to get our hands dirty.

We’re coming to realize that our drones no longer work for us. In fact, they’re increasingly seen as targeting us. We all have children whom we occasionally send to the market. The enemy is often hiding behind a human shield comprised of our children. Every time there’s a vote to increase the school budget, we’re asked to choose between our children and some old person who must now choose between his or her property taxes and his or her meds. It amounts to a Hobson’s choice. It’s been that way for years. And now, it seems, the chickens have come home to roost.