I Heard It and I Still Can’t Believe I Heard It

Today there was a statement by Peter W. Chiarelli, the commander in Iraq, concerning the many abuses that have been perpetrated by the various coalition forces there. They’re going to start doing some ‘sensitivity training’, I gather. Here’s what he said:

“As military professionals, it is important that we take time to reflect on the values that separate us from our enemies.”

My jaw almost hit the floor when I heard that. Am I the only person to hear what that statement means? I can’t be. It seems to have passed over the collective consciousness with nary a ripple. But he explained, neatly in one sentence, why those abuses have happened. But it’s not quite what he meant, though: the problem isn’t that the coalition forces have “different values” from anyone else — it’s that they think their values differ, and by extension, are better. It’s ignorant, deluded, and extremely dangerous. What I hear in his statement is: Hey, come on guys, let’s not act like the scum that we’re fighting.

I guess it just would never occur to him that there is no us, and there is no them.

The mindset of demonizing the “other” is so strong in this man that he can’t even hear it when it comes out in such bald, uncompromising terms. Hey, commander: next week the powers that be in Washington will announce that you’re supposed to go somewhere else and fight somebody else. And then they’ll become the demons. And then who? You’ve got some Germans in your coalition, you know: they were the demons not so long ago, the ones with the alien values. Except that they’re not demons now, so presumably they now have the same values you have. Or maybe they always did?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

This is what I get for watching the evening news again…………

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