The false mantra of 9/11

Do you remember the mantra of 9/11 (“Nothing justifies the killing of innocent people”)?

It was bullshit then, and it’s still bullshit now. A more accurate version would have read:

Nothing justifies the killing of innocent people, except …

• the institution of slavery
• the imposition of economic sanctions
• a woman’s right to choose
• the right to keep and bear arms
• following proper police procedure
• military necessity
• national security
• the moral imperative of free trade
• the culture of “to win and to have”
• the war on terror
• the false gospel of globalization
• the horrible threat of religious totalitarianism

Feel free to add your own favorite exceptions to the list. As you do, keep in mind the three basic justifications for America’s murders:

• The dead were not “innocent”, or
• The dead were not “people”, or
• We didn’t kill them (someone else did, they killed themselves, or they were killed by a concept or an institution).

D.H. Lawrence once observed, “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer.”

He didn’t know the half of it.