Blaming the victim

Wednesday, September 25, 2013



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Published: Tuesday, September 24, 2013







Letters To The Editor







Blaming the victim











Ted Rudow III, MA, Encina Ave, Palo Alto, CA

It makes me furious the way the U.S. invades weak nations like Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq and others and blames the death and destruction it leaves behind on them! In other words, it’s all their fault that they were invaded and devastated, with part of their army slaughtered and their citizenry becoming “collateral damage” just because they happened to be where the U.S. wanted to drop a bomb, shoot a missile, fire a tank, or shoot a rifle!

It’s not a new U.S. tactic, either. It’s one they’ve practiced for hundreds of years. Dear old Mark Twain had them pegged when he described the process that governments use: “Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

What he was saying is that it not only serves the government’s purpose in blaming the war and destruction on the victim, but the people themselves are then able to soothe their conscience and feel justified, that “They had it coming to them,” even if the excuse the government uses is flimsy as can be! People accept it anyway because they don’t want to feel bad about themselves or about their government, and they can keep waving the flag and saying, “God bless America,” secure in their goodness and niceness.







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