Collateral Damage
for release 01-15-06
Washington D.C.
I'm sure we would be as mad as the people are in Northern Pakistan if a foreign power sent its missiles to destroy a small community in America.
When I heard the news of the US attack in which 17 people including women and children were murdered. I was appalled. The Poet's Eye has seen some pretty grisly things. It takes a lot to appall me. But I was appalled.
Picture yourself in a small mountain village. One day you notice that model airplanes are circling your town. They are unmanned CIA predator drones each carrying four Hellfire missiles. You know that some American joy-stick jockey is flying the damned thing and that, to him, it's just a fucking video game. Makes you feel like the world is safe from terror, doesn't it? Especially when in the middle of the night a couple of blocks of houses are vaporized before your eyes and your children are dead.
Suppose it was your son or daughter or grandmother who was killed in such an attack? Don't you just get a warm and cozy feeling when you think of one you love or even yourself resting under a tombstone on which is written "Collateral Damage?"
Sure, we call it a 'surgical strike', we were going after the devil himself, but you know what the definition of 'major surgery' is, don't you? It's when they are doing it on YOU.
Officials in the village say that "Their information was wrong, and our investigations conclude that they acted on a false information." His account was confirmed by a senior government official, who said al-Zawahri "was not there."
Operating on faulty intelligence? Is this de je vu all over again?
My guess is that it is more likely that al-Zawahri died in the stampede in Mecca than being killed by our video cowboys in the CIA. What we accomplished was killing some innocent civilians.
Ok, here's the deal. The CIA and the FBI and the Navy Seals and Al Queda and the Mafia and and the Aryan Brotherhood, are all in the same category. They are thugs and bullies. And not only that, they are thugs and bullies for hire. You, as an American taxpayer, are hiring thugs to do your dirty work. You are hiring police to snoop into your private records and harass you for your personal habits and you are hiring your thugs to fight their thugs and it all looks so much like the Crips and Bloods on nuclear steroids that it causes The Poet's Eye to water.
Our thugs are well financed. They have gizmos and toys and global positioning satellites and remote controlled bombers. They can trace every phone call or email you ever sent or thought of sending. But they can't seem to find one six-foot-four Arab with an AK-47 who is obviously the devil himself and responsible for all of America's woes. So, in the name of stamping out the devil, we are going to annihilate a few innocents who happened to show up on our X-box. The Pakistanis have a right to be outraged. We should be outraged too.
If America stands for the rule of law, then it should use legal means to arrest and detain someone who has committed a crime. If we knew where Zawahri was, then we should have gone and arrested him instead of taking out every person withing a 300 yard radius of where we thought he was. If your next door neighbor happens to be a criminal, does that give the government the right to demolish your house with a hellfire missile?
I had a nightmare one time. The credit card companies, using nano technology, had developed a small guided missile about the size of a Bic lighter. If you are late on your bill, Watch Out, they will do a surgical strike. Also warn your neighbors.
I been in the right place
But it must have been the wrong time
I'd have said the right thing
But I must have used the wrong line
I'd a took the right road
But I must have took a wrong turn
Would have made the right move
But I made it at the wrong time
I been on the right road
But I must have used the wrong car
My head was in a good place
And I wonder what it's bad for
---Dr. John
