Judge, Jury, and Executioner Demands an End to Other People's Violence

A cynical person might think it was deliberate that President Barack Obama would stand in front of the country decrying yet another mass shooting and then turn around and murder at least 19 civilians in Afghanistan by bombing a hospital; or they might question whether the timing of the bombing was meant to coincide with a news item that would get far more coverage.

Regarding the shooting, Obama said, "Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this." It's sad that he doesn't see how that same statement can be applied to his administration killing innocent civilians, including Americans, in the Middle East.

Glenn Greenwald has done a fine job exposing the hypocrisy of the U.S. government criticizing Russian airstrikes in Syria allegedly targeting civilians and then bombing this hospital, but if we're going to address the culture of violence in America today we have to first point out that the President of the United States has no moral authority to lecture anybody.

Obama can cry his crocodile tears over our seemingly monthly mass shooting, which is a real and pressing problem, but as president Obama has had more innocent civilians killed than all of the mass shooters during his presidency have killed combined. This is not to mention the administrations of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and beyond. There is perhaps no greater example to any individual considering harming others than the violence and destruction caused by the American presidents for the past several decades.

Let's not let ourselves be lectured to on topics of violence and murder by a man talking down to us from a mountain of corpses.