Aleppo and an Old Phrase.

Aleppo has been in my head and heart all day today, so why haven’t I made a post about it? Why haven’t I rambled on again about how the world is ruled by psychopaths playing a power game in which innocent people are at best merely pawns and often no more than statistics? Because it’s old news.

The US is pointing the finger at Russia and accusing it of ‘barbarism.’ Well, that’s old news too. We could point the finger the other way, citing the American-led invasion of Iraq and asking how many thousands of innocent civilians died for a reason which has never been satisfactorily explained. Or we could point the same finger at the European imperialist powers and quote examples of mass abuse and genocide committed in the name of Empire. Maybe we should we leap across the Pacific and shout ‘Nanking Massacre’ in the ears of the Japanese. We could go on and on pointing fingers at each other, and it would all be old news.

So why don’t we just accept that every language – even Russian, presumably – has a word or phrase equating to ‘collateral damage’? Let’s all make a pact to say ‘it’s only collateral damage’ the next time we go to bed, and then we can all sleep content.