Is that the response we're supposed to have to the killing of David Haines?
The British journalist is the third beheaded by the Islamic State in the last weeks.
Unlike the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, Haines hasn't captured the media attention.
In the US, the release of a video of the murder resulted in, for example, NBC sending a no-star from the junior division to do a live set-up in front of the White House as a ghoulish Lester Holt peppered her with questions that repeatedly led no where.
Haines' greatest handicap is that he's not American.
Sotloff's Israeli citizenship could be 'managed' (hidden, discounted, overlooked) and he could be sold solely as an American.
But an obviously British victim?
Well the American media just can't relate.
I'd like to believe it was something more than just that.
I'd like to believe that the country's shaking off the nonsense of the last few weeks which allowed Barack and the media to turn Foley and Sotloff into Helen of Troy -- a reason for war.
Losses happen all of the time.
They aren't usually used as a reason for war, a justification.
But that's what's been done with Foley and Sotloff, they've been used by the White House and the US media to whip up a frenzy for war.
The same White House that, apparently has so little respect for Sotloff that they're entering into a public dispute with his family.
They'll pretend to care about him -- at least until the moment comes that they have to attack his family.
There's a war to sell and all, who has time to be polite or mannered? Let alone respectful of the dead?
Not the White House.
But while Barack can't play into the inherent vanity of the American press with the death of David Haines, maybe something else is at play?
Even if just in part?
Maybe the fear tactic got overplayed.
The endless cycle of the beheadings -- video and media chatter -- was not that different from the 9-11 coverage.
It was endless, it was mindless, it was geared toward the gut because logic could let allow it to flatten quickly.
And maybe Americans got tricked for a little bit but have come around to the reality that the death of one reporter or two or three or more really is not justification for war.
The United States did not declare war on the IRA, for example.
Maybe bits of history, bits of memory, are flooding the American conscious and they realize they're being manipulated by the White House?
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4491.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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