Boys oh Boys and Body Counts

Last time Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, I figured out the equation of that 'conflict', as the conventional media like to call it. Of course now I can't remember exactly but I think it was 10 to 1. In the bombardment Israel maintained the equation by making sure 10 Palestinians were killed for every one Israeli. The logical conclusion is that one Israeli has the value of 10 Palestinians.

Probably the same equation was used in South Africa under Apartheid. During the conquest of North America is was probably something like 1 civilized person to 100 First Nations or maybe even higher.

Though the body count equation is pretty clear now, we have the benefit of seeing the actual cash value of dead brown folk in Afghanistan. After the recent murder of 16 or 17 people of all ages and genders at the hands of a US soldier the payout per person was $50,000.

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Man, I heard about this kid Trayvon Martin who was stalked and killed in a gated community in Florida because he was black. He was 16. Check out this Democracy Now! show about him. So sad. The guy who killed him still hasn't even been arrested and charged with anything.



(Incidentally, I wonder if the powers that be don't think we all see this and the hypocrisy. I guess they are testing us to find our breaking points. Still not there!)

Anyway, Obama the other day lamented the death of this young man, saying that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon. On the surface this is a fair comment and I was glad he made it. But then I saw a comment posted after an article where the anonymous person reminded readers that Obama had himself killed brown children like Trayvon. While this statement appeals to a lefty sense of injustice in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is actually one kid Obama did murder and got away with it, much like Trayvon's killer.

The 16 year old American citizen with brown skin (like Trayvon) was murdered by a drone strike in Yemen. On the orders of the President. The US government never presented any evidence to murder a child. The only difference is that Abdulrahman al-Awlaki had a supposedly terrorist father, again no evidence presented that he actually did anything apart from preach against the US. But even if his dad had done something terroristic does that mean that his kid needs to die?

Justice is in short supply all around.