Regarding Bloodlust

Crossposted over at Human Beams

Well, I tried to go to sleep earlier and failed miserably. So here I am sitting on my couch watching CNN where BREAKING NEWS!!!!! has sent the talking-head zombies into a frothy madness.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, has been killed in a U.S. air raid north of Baghdad, Iraq's prime minister said Thursday.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed Wednesday evening along with seven aides.

The Jordanian-born militant, who was believed to have personally beheaded at least two American hostages, became Iraq's most wanted militant, as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he swore allegiance in 2004. The United States had put a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi, the same as bin Laden.

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The Press Conference involving the leadership of Iraq's puppet legitimate government as well as General Casey of the U.S. has succeeded in making my stomach turn into several knots. There was thunderous applause when the announcement was made.

Here's where I become unreasonable to the "mainstream" of the United States of North America.

Rather than pop open a bottle of champaigne and toast this Victory for Freedom™, the crazed look of revenge in the eyes of the warmongering power brokers I see before me takes my mood to a dark place. The world, especially the U.S., is in a tight grip of bloodlust that is making rational behaviour impossible.

Yes, 'terrorists' want us dead. Yes, 'terrorists' have already killed innocent human lives. Yes, I have no idea what a 'terrorist' really is. Wait. Huh?

The ire has been raised against the West because we have failed in diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. Instead of letting sovereign nations be sovereign, we have interfered and exposed unending levels of hypocrisy when it comes to military might and political power. The war hawks in Congress rattle their sabres against certain nations for their aspirations to have nuclear power, yet they expect a free pass to test new weaponry for our forces to use at the whim of a trigger-happy cowboy and his testy gang of thugs.

I'm sick of war. Period. I'm sick of death, murder, killing, torture, rape, genocide, embargoes, frozen assets, the list is unending.

When's it going to end, my fellow human beings? To my American friends reading this, when are we going to hold our government accountable for hypocrisy and its inability to use diplomacy as a tool for nation-building instead of bunker-buster bombs?

Gandhi made my point more concise than this post has been thus far

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Is it still a cliché if it's the truth?