Death Less Conventional

Within the past two years, around seventy thousand Syrians have died as a result of the civil war there.  The recent chemical weapons attacks are estimated to have killed around one thousand, five hundred. 

(Math...)

(Okay- fifteen into seventy, four, then ten, about forty-six, doubled and a little more...)

That puts the percentage of Syrian deaths due to recent chemical attacks at just over two percent of the total deaths durin' the past two years of civil war.  Two years...

Huh...!

Ain't it odd how the United States, and the Rest of the World as well, stood back and watched, (granted, with an appropriate amount of the obligatory disdain) for two years, while tens of thousands of people in Syria died in any number of violent ways?  Death by anything from torture to gunfire to bombings and God only knows what else.  

But then, when some of the very same people are wholesale poisoned, we drag from storage our Righteous Indignation, and proclaim that such a heinous act is categorically unacceptable!  An outrage!  A line has been crossed!

Fifteen hundred vs. seventy thousand.

Fifteen hundred men, women, and children vs. seventy thousand men, women, and children.

For me, after a brief, but thoughtful, comparison, the greatest difference between these two figures is obvious: they are two distinctly different figures.  That's it!  That's the biggest difference!

One figure bein' a relative shitload  greater than the other.  Both are body counts.  Sums of dead people.  And yes, their respective routes to an end are broad and varied.  But, the destination is exactly the same.  Exactly the same.  

Dead.

Are the deaths of the first seventy thousand of these people somehow diminished by the fact that their lives were taken by the use of "conventional weapons"?  

("Conventional weapons"...  Now how freakin' brilliant a phrase is that?!!)

Now, I ain't sayin' that all forms of death are equal in regard to sufferin' or mercy, or the lack of either.  The point I'm hopin' to make is that the result is the same- Death.  I've said it before- Death knows no "degrees".  Ain't no "very dead", or "kinda dead".  These may exist as literary or oratory devices, but, as actual conditions, these simply do not exist.  Dead is an extremely narrow and specific (permanent?) state of being.  

And everyone can think whatever they will about an "Afterlife".  But, if there is one, I'm bettin' that Cause of Death ain't a particularly popular Topic of Discussion among those that are there hangin' out.  

Example:

"I sure wish I had been struck by somethin' smaller than that semi- like a pickup or a sedan, maybe..."  

Or even:

"I don't care what anybody says- freezin' to death is about one of the best ways to go out as anyone could wish for."  

See?  Now that shit just sounds stupid.

(I'm havin' trouble comin' up with some sort of analogy, reasonable or absurd, that might explain or even help clarify the dissonance of this situation.  But don't count me out- not just yet...)

It seems that somehow, ain't got a friggin' clue how, but somehow, we, the Human Race, have developed some kinda bizarre skill or aptitude or whatever ya wanna call it, that allows us to freely divorce the Results of Mass Murder from the Methods of Mass Murder.  We can entertain each of these as entirely free-standin' concepts, and discuss, examine, and formulate ideas relatin' to one, while completely ignorin' the other.  

Utterly freakin'  fascinatin'!

So, what of the Father tryin' to make his way home after workin' a menial job, only to fall victim to indiscriminate gunfire?  What of the Mother that hears the shellin' and shoos her Children into their modest dwellin', only to have it collapse as a result of rocket fire, thus crushin' them in the rubble, extinguishin' their lives?  Or, the young man, stomped and beaten by his Tormenters as they repeatedly insist he share anything he might know about efforts to resist the slaughter, only to wind up with his brains blown across the sidewalk, regardless of what he did or didn't know or share?  Or, the young girl, dragged into an alley and brutalized for no other reason save that Conflict creates an arena where the Base and the Vile might carry out their perverse desires, free of Conscience or the Fear of Justice or Retribution?  What about those people?

Fifteen hundred men, women, and children vs. seventy thousand men, women, and children.

Do these things not play well enough in the headlines of the mornin' paper?  Are they too complicated to be distilled into a  suitable sound bite for the crawl at the bottom of the screen?  Are they too far away?

Has Death become passé?  Are we that desensitized?  Must we "dress it up" before we consume it?  

Is it just too borin'?

Now, this must surely be a sign of a Truly Advanced Species.

Never before have I  been more Goddamn Proud...

~Fish~