Several days after the mass killings at Virginia Tech, grisly
stories about the tragedy still dominate front pages and cable
television. News of carnage on a vastly larger scale — the war in Iraq
— ebbs and flows. The overall coverage of lethal violence, at home and
far away, reflects the chronic evasions of the American media
establishment.
In the world of U.S. mainline journalism, the boilerplate legitimacy
of official American violence overseas is a routine assumption.
“The first task of the occupation remains the first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence,” George Will wrote
three years ago in the Washington Post. But now, his latest Newsweek
column laments: “Vietnam produced an antiwar movement in America; Iraq
has produced an antiwar America.”
Current polls and public discourse — in spite of media inclinations
to tamp down authentic anger at the war — do reflect an “antiwar
America” of sorts. So, why is the ghastly war effort continuing
unabated? A big factor is the undue respect that’s reserved for
American warriors in American society.
When a mentally unstable person goes on a shooting rampage in the
United States, no one questions that such actions are intrinsically,
fundamentally and absolutely wrong. The media condemnation is 100
percent…
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