<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<address id="7195" class="fz ga bi gb b gc gd ge gf gg gh gi gj gk
gl gm gn go gp gq gr cs"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/on-bombs-and-bombings-29f3e5baa769">https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/on-bombs-and-bombings-29f3e5baa769</a><br>
<br>
NOS ZWIJGT IN ALLE TALEN<br>
</address>
<h1 id="7195" class="fz ga bi gb b gc gd ge gf gg gh gi gj gk gl gm
gn go gp gq gr cs">On Bombs And Bombings</h1>
<div class="gs">
<div class="n es gt gu gv">
<div class="o n">
<div><a rel="noopener"
href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone?source=post_page-----29f3e5baa769----------------------"><img
alt="Caitlin Johnstone" class="r dl gw gx"
src="https://miro.medium.com/fit/c/96/96/1*UDnSUoroqCxShe6CBUDKiw.jpeg"
width="48" height="48"></a></div>
<div class="gy ai r">
<div class="n">
<div style="flex:1"><span class="bh b bi bj bk bl r cs q">
<div class="gz n o ha"><span class="bh hb ca bj bu hc
bt hd he hf cs"><a class="cf cg at au av aw ax ay
az ba hg bd cj ck" rel="noopener"
href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone?source=post_page-----29f3e5baa769----------------------">Caitlin
Johnstone</a></span></div>
</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="o n">
<div class="gy ai r"><span class="bh b bi bj bk bl r bm bn"><span
class="bh hb ca bj bu hc bt hd he hf bm">
<div><a class="cf cg at au av aw ax ay az ba hg bd cj ck"
rel="noopener"
href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/on-bombs-and-bombings-29f3e5baa769?source=post_page-----29f3e5baa769----------------------">Aug
18</a> · 5 min read</div>
</span></span></div>
</div>
<figure class="hz ia ib ic id ie fn fo paragraph-image">
<div class="if ig cc ih ai">
<div class="fn fo hy">
<div class="il r cc fb">
<div class="im in r">
<div class="cb ii s t u ds ai bu ij ik"><br>
</div>
<img alt="Image for post" class="eg rb s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1109/1*PfBe-rYHmrUp3KEuj4zT3A.png"
width="580" height="320"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</figure>
<p id="1478" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">For
<a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/israel-carries-air-strike-gaza-balloon-bombs-rockets-200816055219330.html"
class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener
nofollow">a full week now</a> the Israeli army has been bombing
Gaza, a population that is <a
href="https://ppost24.com/post/804/gaza-to-plunge-in-full-darkness-in-days#.XzrDQI2cbzg.twitter"
class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener
nofollow">about to run out of fuel</a> for its only power plant
due to a years-long Israeli program of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-starvation-diet-gaza/11810"
class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener
nofollow">deliberate siege warfare</a>.</p>
<p id="91f8" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Yesterday
the US <a
href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/syria-war-deadly-clash-between-us-and-syrian-forces-qamishli-checkpoint-airstrike-today-2020-08-17/"
class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener
nofollow">ordered an airstrike</a> on Syrian forces, killing
one, when they refused to let the illegal occupying force past a
checkpoint in northern Syria.</p>
<p id="937c" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">In
both cases an arm of the US-centralized empire used wildly
disproportionate force against people who stood against a hostile
occupation of their own country. In both cases the more powerful
and violent occupiers claimed they were acting in “self-defense”.
In both cases dropping explosives from the sky upon human beings
barely made the news.</p>
<figure class="hz ia ib ic id ie"></figure>
<p id="f9bd" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Bombs
should not exist. Explosives designed to blow fire and shrapnel
through human bodies should not be a thing. In a sane world, there
wouldn’t be bombs, and if some mentally unbalanced person ever
made and used one it would be a major international news story.</p>
<p id="7fc4" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Instead,
bombs are cranked out like iPhones at <a
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/02/21/military-spending-defense-contractors-profiting-from-war-weapons-sales/39092315/"
class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener
nofollow">enormous profit</a>, and nearly all bombings are
ignored. <a
href="https://truthout.org/articles/bring-the-troops-home-but-stop-the-bombing-too/"
class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener
nofollow">Many bombs are being dropped per day</a> by the US and
its allies, with a <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/02/trump-impeachment-civilian-casualties-war/"
class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener
nofollow">massive civilian death toll</a>, and almost none of
those bombings receive any international attention. The only time
they do is generally when a bombing occurs that was not authorized
by the US-centralized empire.</p>
<p id="2ab8" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">This
is one of those absolutely freakish things about our society that
<a class="cf di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener"
href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/abnormalize-the-status-quo-22c3ce53cd26">has
become normalized</a> through careful narrative management, and
we really shouldn’t allow it to be. The fact that explosives
designed to rip apart human anatomy are dropped from the sky many
times per day for no other reason than to exert control over
foreign countries should horrify us all.</p>
<p id="5706" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">An
interesting social experiment when you talk to someone might be to
tell them solemnly, “There’s been a bombing.” Then when they say
“What?? Where??”, tell them “The Middle East mostly. Our
government and its allies drop many bombs there per day in order
to keep a resource-rich geostrategic region balkanized and
controllable.”</p>
<p id="29ca" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Then
watch their reaction.</p>
<figure class="hz ia ib ic id ie"></figure>
<p id="e25d" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">You
will probably notice a marked change in demeanor as the person
learns that what you meant is different from what they thought you
meant. They will likely act as though you’d tricked them in some
way. But you didn’t. You just called a thing the thing that it is,
and let their assumptions do the rest.</p>
<p id="1270" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">When
someone gravely tells you “There’s been a bombing,” what they
almost always mean is that there has been a suspected terrorist
attack in a western, majority-white nation. They don’t mean the
kind of bombing that kills exponentially more people and does
exponentially more damage than terrorism in western nations. They
don’t mean the kind of terrorism that our government enacts and
approves of.</p>
<p id="0773" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">There’s
a lot of pushback nowadays against the racism and prejudices that
are woven throughout the fabric of our society, and <a class="cf
di jp jq jr js" target="_blank" rel="noopener"
href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/meditations-on-whiteness-6f737950bf6">rightly
so</a>. But what doesn’t get nearly enough attention in this
discourse is the fact that while some manifestations of bigotry
may have been successfully scaled back somewhat in our own
countries, it was in a sense merely exported overseas.</p>
<p id="c9b6" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
violence that is being inflicted overseas in our name by the
US-centralized empire is more horrific than any manifestation of
racism we’re ever likely to encounter at home. It is more horrific
than the pre-integration American South. It is more horrific than
even slavery itself. Yet even the more conscious among us fail to
give this relentless onslaught of violence a proportionate degree
of recognition and condemnation, even while the consent for it is
largely born of the unexamined <a class="cf di jp jq jr js"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
href="https://medium.com/@geri.danton/a-type-of-bigotry-we-dont-talk-about-but-should-7ad9f4d74305">bigoted
notion</a> that violence against people in developing and
non-western countries does not matter.</p>
<figure class="hz ia ib ic id ie"></figure>
<p id="9276" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Like
many other forms of bigotry, this one has been engineered and
promulgated by powerful people who benefit from it. If the
mainstream news media were what it purports to be, namely an
institution dedicated to creating an informed populace about
what’s truthfully going on in the world, we would see the bombings
in foreign nations given the same type of coverage that a bombing
in Paris or London receives.</p>
<p id="747f" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">This
would immediately bring consciousness to the unconscious bigotry
that those in the US-centralized empire hold against people in low
and middle income countries, which is exactly why the
plutocrat-owned media do not report on it in this way. The
US-centralized empire is held together by endless violence, and
the plutocrats who run it have built their kingdoms upon the
status quo of that empire.</p>
<p id="abee" class="ir is bi it b iu iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je
jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">When
people set out to learn what’s really going on in their world they
often start cramming their heads with history and geopolitics
facts and figures, which is of course fine and good. But a bigger
part of getting a clear image of what’s happening in the world is
simply turning your gaze upon things you already kind of knew were
happening, but couldn’t quite bring yourself to look at.</p>
<br>
</body>
</html>