Wonderwall

Luojie (China Daily)

--You're probably one of them knee-jerk liberals
that thinks us gun boys would shoot our guns
because it's an extension of our penises.
--It could be true.
--Well, maybe it is. But this is gun country
--Death Wish (1974)

Today was gonna be the day?
But they'll never throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you're not to do
--Wonderwall, Oasis
_______________

Ranger wonders which is more painful -- thinking or feeling? Both can be devastating depending on the situation, referencing the old Infantry school mantra (It depend upon the situation.) Ranger learned situational ethics as pragmatism, a posture which has served him well in getting his needs met.

Recently torrential rain disallowed sleep and my mind floated on sheets of memory. Ranger is no stranger to either hatred or violence, as he decided to embrace both willingly when entering the Infantry. Violence has been abandoned; only hatred remains. This is progress in an imperfect world.

No one cares to address hatred unless it is backed by its manifestation, violence, or the threat thereof. Hatred just simmers, unseen, if not given spectacular venting. Terrorism encompasses both the former and the latter.

We seem unable to live with the threat of violence, which exists from its germ in hatred. Why should we care if anyone hates us? Yet the threat alone has spawned a new action hero called "the American Warrior". While actual violence should be confronted, we hide our fear and hatred morphed into violence under the veil of "protectionism". In truth, we are as hateful and violent as the threat we propose to counter.

Hatred-fueled violence is self-defeating, yet that is the cycle in which the U.S. finds itself. Our responses to those who would act on their hatred verifies this cycle.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is hatred and violence personified. Our reaction is to trump him. So the U.S. slams him in secret prisons, in isolation, and tortures him. Sport water-boarding becomes the nation's light entertainment and revenge fantasy.

Some people have taken the Infantry rules of situation to an absurd end, claiming the present situation allows for such behavior. They say it all depends on definition of situation. Sport fucking may be fair in the absence of anything more meaningful. In the context of a committed relationship, not so much so. But some behaviors are unjustified in any situation. Torture should never be sport. Context matters; ethics matter.

KSM now languishes, awaiting trial in NYC, the site of the manifestation of his destructive fantasies. How can one sorry person like KSM tie our values in a wad and flush them down the toilet of history? Based on our extra-legal response, we have now indicted ourselves as a hateful and violent people, and the truth is out of the closet.

Can President Obama and Attorney General Holder actually believe that justice will resemble the old statue of Lady Liberty standing proud outside of the Cleveland Federal Court Building? Justice is now a syphilitic, toothless whore with a sword, who has lost the scales symbolic of justice of yesteryear.

KSM didn't do this; we did this to ourselves. This makes us as sorry as the idiots that call themselves al-Qaeda.