Cpl. Chan Lathung, a native of Oakland, Calif., and a crew chief with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 362, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), scans the surrounding area for insurgent activity during a general support flight over Helmand province, Afghanistan, July 27, 2012. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Lamberth)
At his blog, Lew Rockwell explains the connection between American militarism and mass shootings. He writes (abridged):
This past weekend, 22 people were killed in El Paso, Texas and 9 in Dayton, Ohio. There have been a number of other mass shootings in the past two decades or so; the largest was in Las Vegas in 2017, with 58 killed. This is sad, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the real perpetrators of death in America—-the US military.
It is been well-said that “it’s time for America to reckon with the staggering death toll of the post 9-11 wars.”
“Brown University’s Costs of War Project this month released a new estimate of the total death toll from the U.S. wars in three countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The numbers, while conservatively estimated, are staggering. Brown’s researchers estimate that at least 480,000 people have been directly killed by violence over the course of these conflicts, more than 244,000 of them civilians. In addition to those killed by direct acts violence, the number of indirect deaths — those resulting from disease, displacement, and the loss of critical infrastructure — is believed to be several times higher, running into the millions.
If we want to end mass killing, this is what we should be trying to stop. Instead, the military is glorified. Deaths in war are downplayed, but when a mass shooting happens in an American city, the media saturates us with propaganda calling for gun control.
This is ironic not only because of the enormous disparity between the numbers killed by the military and those killed in mass shootings. It is also ironic because many of the mass shooters are people the military has trained to become mass killers.
A mounting number of mass shooters have ties to the military.
The United States has indulged in a culture of ‘patriotic’ militarism for decades, glorifying this institutionalized violence as a sign of strength and morality.
It is hardly surprising that Connor Betts, the shooter in Dayton, Ohio, showed up in body armor.
Instead of ending foreign wars, the greatest single contribution we could make to ending killing and violence, the power elite plays up mass shootings as part of its dual campaign to take away our guns and impose cultural Marxist mind control on us, in the guise of opposing “racism”.
We do not need “gun control.” As David Gornoski has well put it, “No family, no matter their race, income, or zip code, should have to face the violence of government gun bans. Although the irony of government assault rifles facing down children in search of assault rifles speaks for itself, it would be just as immoral if the agents were armed with pistols.
Owning an AR-15 in the house does not victimize anyone. Enforcing laws against an AR-15 owning family does.” We need is an end to American militarism and killing.
Read more here.
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