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Victim's of Assad atrocity.

Twelve years ago nearly 3000 people were killed in an attack reputedly performed by Islamic fundamentalists on New York City. Last month nearly 1500 people were killed in Syria by poison gas, delivered by Syrian government forces. The victims in New York were overwhelmingly adults associated with the corporate business of an international center of capitalist commerce. The victims in Syria were men, women and nearly 500 children who were living in a neighborhood of Syria's capital city, a neighborhood seen as a threat to the Assad dictatorship. 

It is clear that the monsters who perpetrated both of these attacks suffered from fear of and hatred toward their targets. It is unlikely that those who actually delivered the death blows knew many or any of the victims of their atrocity. It was anonymous mass murder in both cases. The atrocious equivalent of a drive-by shooting by thugs wearing balaclavas. Neither attack had any higher purpose than a drug-traffic turf war. 

The difference in the reaction of Americans is notable. After September 11, 2001, the U.S. was inflamed with rabid, violent nationalism. Corporately controlled media stoked the flames of that rage. After all, one of the great shrines of capitalism, the Wall Street neighborhood, had been attacked. Many of the people killed were involved in finance or government service. Two disastrous and lengthy wars resulted. These wars have bankrupted the U.S. financially and philosophically.

After the internationally condemned mass murder of nearly 1500 civilians by banned weaponry in Syria, a large majority of the Americans polled oppose intervention by their government and military in Syria. This is the same government and military which wave a flag or moral superiority around the world. This is supposedly a government and military of the American people, most of whom claim to be religious and to subscribe to various religious moralities. This is an American people who do not support anti-gun legislation in their own country, even after children are massacred in public schools.

The myth of America becomes obvious at times like these. The American Dream is not a beacon of freedom lighting the rest of the world. The American Dream is bullying narcissism. The American Dream is a religious nationalism which is hollow and hypocritical. The American Dream is raping the planet for its resources and giving back surplus GMO grain, jet fighters and other lethal weapons. The American Dream is to be American without paying for it in taxes and civic responsibility. The American Dream is taking as much as possible and getting away with it.