So, this London business has me pretty Goddamn depressed.
I'm depressed that so many people were murdered. But, I'm also depressed by what's going on in my head. I feel this huge - albeit impotent - rage against the Jihadis who did it. I'd dearly like to hunt down and snuff out every last terrorist, as well as every last person who's ever had a kind word to say about Al Qaeda.
Granted, we trained many of them. Granted, we gave them a home when we abandoned Afghanistan fifteen minutes after Ivan left. Granted, there weren't any terrorists in Iraq until we invaded. Granted, Iraq is a training ground for Jihadis in the exact same way Ivan's presence in Afghanistan was. I grant you all of that. I still want every last one of them to die.
And that, I guess, is pretty much how wars start. Once folks start dying, hearts start hardening. Once people have a relative, or a spouse, or a friend die, they're unlikely to want to make peace with the folks who killed them. The cycle continues - more people die, more hearts harden, more people die, more hearts harden.
We think of them as less than human - they're ragheads, towel heads, sand niggers, carpet pilots, Ali Baba, etc. And in turn, they call us crusaders, infidels, devils, and doubtless honkies to boot. Now that none of us are human, it's a hell of a lot easier to start busting caps.
And some mighty caps they are. Now that the whole world is cheek to jowl and no part of the globe is more than a day on a jet away from any other point, we are officially fucked. We're going to keep bumping up against each other, and keep on killing each other, until the end of time -- be it next week, or next millenium.
If we were simpler monkeys, and if we were just fighting for a patch of forest, that'd be one thing. But we are very fancy, very complicated, very clever monkeys. And we're fighting over a lot more than a patch of forest.
Today, I have hate in my heart. And while I know that hating people will only make things worse, I'm still sitting here, full of hate. Damn my monkey blood. Damn it all to hell.