Desensitization at its worst.


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I've noticed every morning, when I check any given news source, that I go straight for the big news headlines. I'm preoccupied with the seemingly pointless game of nuclear chess between the Big Five and Iran; I sometimes browse the perpetual pictorials of Katrina's Aftermath; I even read up on crazy Scientologist celebrities.

Today, this headline is off to the side:
"Bombs Rock Baghdad, Karbala; 17 Killed" (msnbc.com)

I paid no attention to it whatsoever, until I realized that I paid attention to it whatsoever.

How ironic that our political liberation of a Middle Eastern country leads to incessant bombings, murders, and killings that our military force is powerless to stop. And how ironic that many others like myself, who saw no point in initiating this embarassing skirmish, pay no attention to the almost daily headlines that chronicle the deaths of Iraqis, Americans, and Europeans alike. We've become desensitized to something that, had it happened five miles away from where we lived, or even in this country, we would otherwise be up in political arms about.

Is this a way of making us oblivious to our misgivings about the invasion of Iraq? They probably figure, "Half the people agree with our decision. We'll barrage the other half's news circuits with constant reports of bombings so that it becomes third-class news--no one will pay attention to the hundreds of people killed in Iraq each year when another candidate for the Axis of Evil Middle Eastern country won't disarm its theoretical nukes or when Tom Cruise's box office smash breaks records." If this is their line of thinking, then the current administration (and the media who answers to its beck and call) is winning in its efforts to place everyone in some state of unquestioning placation.

The most tragic thing of all this is that these headlines truly do belong intermingled with the more banal fare, because we live in a world where Iraqi bombings have become as commonplace as the daily weather report. And I will continue to pass over them while drinking my Diet Coke.


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