Blood on Their Hands

[bonito]

Every time Bush stands up to speak about the war, how we have to stick it out, how we have to stand up against evil, how our nation is being called to do its historic duty, I have the same thought: and what are you doing besides making this stupid speech? Presidents speak as if they somehow embody the will of the nation, and so the courage shown by the troops is their courage, the determination of the commanders on the ground is their determination too, and the strong will of the people to fork over to fund this ghastly war is their strong will too. They might even believe it.

But this has nothing to do with reality. The people who are ordering this war to be fought are not actually doing the fighting. The politicians are not dying by the dozens per day. Senators aren’t getting their arms and legs blown off or their faces disfigured. Executive branch bureaucrats are not fearing for their lives every minute, facing extreme psychological stress, suffering from every manner of sleep deprivation or physical malady. Nor do politicians live with the ever-lasting guilt that comes with killing in cold blood people who are merely trying to secure the independence of their country.

Indeed, politicians try to stay as far away from the real action of war as possible. When Bush encounters enlisted soldiers, it is only within carefully scripted parameters. His handlers make sure that he hears cheers, not hisses. All the politicians spend more time watching poll numbers than body counts. For them, most of the death associated with this war is an abstraction. If any of them were forced to witness first hand the scene of a suicide bomb that kills 20 in an instant, sleep in the bunkers with the troops and hear of their fears and struggles, to personally deliver the news of a dead husband to a young wife and children, matters would be different indeed.

But does that make them any less guilty? Not according to the Bush administration’s own moral theory of culpability. They claim that Osama bin Laden bears the primary guilt for the crime of 9-11. He didn’t fly the planes into buildings. They say that he sponsored the hijackers’ training, planted the idea, and gave the orders. That makes him a war criminal and deserving of death. But then so too have Bush and the political class sponsored the training of the soldiers who are killing and being killed daily. They gave the commanders the notion that it would be a good idea to demolish a country and a people. Bush and those he hired have given the orders. And unlike the case of Osama, there is no doubt about the paper trail that leads directly to the White House. more http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/blood-on-their-hands.html by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.