Indignity of the dead

[malaise]

It's always offensive. I remember when the occupiers of Iraq displayed Saddam Hussein's two dead sons and then gave us a holiday treat by showing the hanging of Saddam Hussein himself. That offensive video is still available on Youtube.

And then there were those mercenaries in Fallujah who were killed and displayed by insurgents.
Yes that offensive video is still available. And now it has taken days to pick up these bodies in another war zone. All are offensive but some folks are only offended when it's their dead.

You see you are either offended by all or by none. You can't pick and choose these things.
That's why we have conventions - you can't violate them when you choose and expect others to honor them when it applies to you.

I saw a Dutch father on TV - he said he didn't care whether it was Putin, the Ukrainian government or the separatists who shot down that aircraft, all he wants is something from his only child -her body, a piece of her clothing, just something. I feel his pain. It's the same as that Palestinian parent whose child is buried in rubble in Gaza tonight or the son who can't find his mother. I want dignity for her dead too.

[awoke_in_2003]

1. Big old K&R. nt

[malaise]

4. Our planet is in crisis

I'm so glad the better part of my life has passed.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. I am 46...

and have seen this country slip so much. I am glad I am not 16 or 26.

[malaise]

7. I am much older

and I have had a wonderful life to day, but we're in deep trouble as human beings. There are no rules these days. Might is right.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. Yep, it has always been...

but it has gotten much worse. I don't know which is worse- the military might or the might of the wealthy. Of course, the might of the wealthy helps perpetuate the might of the military- they need the military to secure their wealth.

[malaise]

14. Correct - Military might fights on behalf of the wealthy

We are mere pawns and both the might of the military and the wealth of the mighty have grown to levels we never thought possible.

[WillyT]

2. HUMONGOUS K & R !!!

[malaise]

5. They have me in tears Willy-T

I can't take much more of the hypocrisy.

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. rec!

[malaise]

8. How do we crawl back from this abyss

of lawlessness?

[Scuba]

10. No, no, no!! American Exceptionalism! One of us is worth a thousand of them!

sarcasm thingy here for those without the gene.

[Brigid]

11. I think that's what Confederate soldiers used to say.

[malaise]

12. Truthfully I thought we had all learned about the indignity of death

after the American Civil War and World War I, but apparently we never learn.
I watched that documentary on death and the civil war and still can't believe we left men to rot in fields in that way.

[Brigid]

15. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

-- Wilfred Owen.

We never learn.

&list=PL813BB3BE40151CF1

[vlakitti]

17. One of the greatest poems of the 20th Century

Thanks. Owen died in the war he hated.

[malaise]

19. Which is why chickenhawks should be sent to front lines

[malaise]

13. Except that there's nothing exceptional about this one

We're all capable of being barbarians.

[JI7]

16. no, i don't think it's all equal, i don't think cases like Saddam's sons, Gaddafi are equal to

blacks in the US and the woman raped in india being hung from trees and displayed.

[malaise]

18. All humans are equal

particularly in death. Dignity for all the dead.

[Quantess]

20. Splitting hairs

Whether or not it is personally offensive is not the issue.

"All are offensive but some folks are only offended when it's their dead. You see you are either offended by all or by none."

How can one person dictate to another what is offensive and what isn't? It is perfectly reasonable to expect that "...some folks are only offended when it's their dead."

It's actually more an issue of showing a shred of respect for other people's dead. It's about having a tiny bit of sensitivity about what is offensive to the other side.

S

[Skidmore]

21. You are so on target.

When you have respect for dead and observe conventions around caring for the dead and respecting their family's loss, it makes it harder to totally strip an enemy of its humanity and makes it easier to see them as moving targets or pawns in a giant chess game. When an enemy is so objectified that this last shred of decency cannot be observed then diplomacy and opportunities to establish relationships are lost. Part of the mending of relationships with SE Asia over the past few decades have centered around returning remains for proper burial.

I am deeply disgusted by the events of the past week and the intransigence all around.