America's
problems don't have political solutions, and certainly not military
solutions. Americans lost their moral bearings. America lost its soul.
What I see breaking down in American society is the belief that the United States of America represents that most essential ingredient of Western thought: that unshakeable faith in human progress (the belief that the direction of the world is always toward a better future; more prosperous, more secure, less stressful and hazardous). It is that belief that a better world is not only possible, that it is inevitable. The United States was going to take the lead among nations in building that brave new world.
Most of us know, now, that isn't true. American society took a huge step backward when it resorted to these four things: 1) an unprovoked attack on a tiny impoverished nation that was unable to defend itself; a cowardly act of bullying of the very worst sort, 2) holding prisoners without charges, without legal recourse, without regard to their guilt and giving them absolutely no hope of release, 3) torture of helpless prisoners, not just in violation of international law (which it is), but in violation of American principles of justice and civilized behavior and, finally I believe, 4) the use of unmanned remotely-piloted aerial drone, the use of robotics in warfare, to kill indiscriminately, women and children whose lives were flippantly dismissed as "collateral damage."
What I see breaking down in American society is the belief that the United States of America represents that most essential ingredient of Western thought: that unshakeable faith in human progress (the belief that the direction of the world is always toward a better future; more prosperous, more secure, less stressful and hazardous). It is that belief that a better world is not only possible, that it is inevitable. The United States was going to take the lead among nations in building that brave new world.
Most of us know, now, that isn't true. American society took a huge step backward when it resorted to these four things: 1) an unprovoked attack on a tiny impoverished nation that was unable to defend itself; a cowardly act of bullying of the very worst sort, 2) holding prisoners without charges, without legal recourse, without regard to their guilt and giving them absolutely no hope of release, 3) torture of helpless prisoners, not just in violation of international law (which it is), but in violation of American principles of justice and civilized behavior and, finally I believe, 4) the use of unmanned remotely-piloted aerial drone, the use of robotics in warfare, to kill indiscriminately, women and children whose lives were flippantly dismissed as "collateral damage."
When a society lets expediency
outweigh morality, there is really no limit to what that society can
and will do without the onerous burden of moral responsibility.
The mood of
hopelessness, helplessness, and despair that is gripping Americans today
is by no means unjustified, and it is not due to any external force.To their shame.
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