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ordinary atrocities
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
With the recent arrest and incarceration of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, it is once more not possible to sidestep the atrocities in life. Unspeakable, horrific ... and worst of all, ordinary.
In Buddhism, there is a precept -- do not kill or cause to be killed. Like other precepts, the precept against killing is sometimes run up the flag pole and allowed to flutter gaily in the breeze. But sometimes I think it is really more important to see the precepts not so much as potential achievements but rather as reminders of capacities anyone might inescapably have. To say, "I wouldn't" or "I couldn't" skirts the facts, and Buddhism, in my mind, is a fact-based persuasion. Being either delighted or depressed about facts also skirts the issue. What is inescapable deserves courageous attention ... nothing more, nothing less.
Anyway I was thinking about high-profile atrocities today -- and their low-profile fallout.
Just noodling.
In Buddhism, there is a precept -- do not kill or cause to be killed. Like other precepts, the precept against killing is sometimes run up the flag pole and allowed to flutter gaily in the breeze. But sometimes I think it is really more important to see the precepts not so much as potential achievements but rather as reminders of capacities anyone might inescapably have. To say, "I wouldn't" or "I couldn't" skirts the facts, and Buddhism, in my mind, is a fact-based persuasion. Being either delighted or depressed about facts also skirts the issue. What is inescapable deserves courageous attention ... nothing more, nothing less.
Anyway I was thinking about high-profile atrocities today -- and their low-profile fallout.
Just noodling.
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Comments
We all have an infinite capacity to justify our own actions.
Not you? Have you ever been tempted to take something that wasn't yours and tell yourself, "Well, nobody is going to miss it. It's only a little thing. Besides, everyone does it." or how about "Yeah, that guy deserved to get punched in his big mouth for being an asshole. I would have loved to do it myself." That is the same ability to justify our actions that results in larger atrocities. It's part of what we are.
So the enemy stops being the people actually shooting at us, and becomes everyone living in the village. And on the rare occasion we find out what happens next, we are always shocked. But all around us, there are people who are telling you all "of them" should just be wiped out with a few nukes.
Wild, vile, beyond horrific ... and ordinary.
or everyone can become me, just a young/old/different gender me who live here in this environment.
Atrocities are committed in every war. And are tragic. American GI's butchered German SS troops who had surrendered in early 1945 in Chenogne. In Vietnam, My Lai. The Union is forever blamed for war crimes against civilians in the South. But none of these incidents should be the barometer by which we measure the rightness or wrongness of the cause. If you think being in Afghanistan to build a democracy is good policy, then this massacre should not change that. Likewise, if you think (as I am sympathetic to) that this particular brand of nation-building is a dead-end, then the massacre would not change anything.
There's good and bad points for both tour lengths. The good points for longer tour lengths are that soldiers learn the ground and have time to develop relationships with the locals.
The bad points are that someone is bound to go off their rocker and commit a mass murder.
I will not judge SSgt Bales; I don't know what he has suffered leading upto this point or what mental health issues he was dealing with.
@genkaku - What this man SSG Bales did is IMO no different than the other atrocities committed in the name of a "just" war. These types casualties are usually either hidden or called "collateral damage". In that context, the outrage is even less prominent, yet on the basis of killing innocents it is exactly the same, one as deplorable as the other! IMO.
George Clooney was arrested earlier this week for protesting at the Sudanese embassy in Washington. Should we help those suffering in Sudan? If your answer is yes, then right away, we are interfering in the affairs of another nation.
Most people I know want to be selective in how they think America should interfere with other nations, and think we should interfere in the way in which they approve.
The US was attacked by an organization within and protected by the Afghan government, and which refused to turn over the men responsible for 9/11. For my own part, I think establishing a democracy (Sharia-inspired) was a mistake.
How does Clooney's call for humanitarian aid have anything to do with one county (USA) invading another (Afghanistan, Vietnam) and causing innocent people to die in the process?
Are you suggesting we are "helping" the Afghani people?
Your second paragraph suggests you think American interference is OK, if enough people feel they make the right selection as to which country gets interfered with?
Try to put yourself into the other side's place for a second and see what it feels like if you're on the "receiving end" of your perceived righteousness.
In my second paragraph, you read what you wanted to read, not what I wrote. In fact, I didn't event take a position about whether to interfere or not. You put that in there, too.
The basic question in any situation where intervention is being considered is, first, should be intervene at all? Second, if we are going to, how should we. Some of the possibilities could include: military intervention/nation building; going to the UN; working through NATO; shipping humanitarian supplies through the government; shipping humanitarian supplies through religious groups. Even the last two are interfering in another nation's concerns.
To be honest with you, I'm of the age where I have been reading and learning about humanitarian crises and government upheavals in Africa for half a century. It's about time some of these geographical locations got their act together and made at least a little progress.