Well, it’s official, after escalating several other wars, increasing collateral damage, and killing plenty of children himself, Trump has joined the swamp in DC, shed a few crocodile tears and launched some bombs to distract us from his domestic policy. Nevermind how many children his own policies (and those of his predecessor, though Trump has even less regard for their lives) have killed. What matters is this one situation taken out of context and acted upon without thinking. Again.

For some Democrats, especially the neoliberals, this might come as a surprise, being that they assumed Trump was in cahoots with Russia. One hopes that this lays that accusation to rest. Putin called the attacks what they were, illegal, and he didn’t seem to be in favor of them. [1] The reaction here at home is what leaves much to be desired. [2]

I’m not going to get into the minutia of this attack or what the consequences will be, but when the news of the chemical strike and the accompanying pictures came out, my SO was horrified, and it seemed that everyone was horrified by these kids dying. Now that this is horrific goes without saying, but I had a very strong sense of deja vu. I remembered Aleppo and all the fuss about that city and how much of it was unverified reports of acts of atrocities happening in that city. [3]

The fact that these pictures were everywhere worried me. Again, there is the specter of Trump killing many more people, to include children. Why wasn’t that getting the same amount of coverage, the same reaction, the same amount of opinion pieces? I’ve seen this process before and I know when calls for action before thinking are made we should hold on to our wallets.

Now, I’m not privy to what the thought process was behind Trump’s action. Was his arm twisted? Had he finally decided to go down the route of least resistance and give the neoliberals and neocons the blood they wanted? Perhaps distract from his domestic policy? [4]

But on the internets there were a depressing (sad!) amount of people who claimed that these bombs were a show of Trump being strong, resolute, of not letting Assad get away with a crime. It was almost as if launching missiles was a cathartic act for this group of people. And I am really worried that some people might feel cleansed or enlightened when these bombings are announced.

“Aching, nobly to wade through the blood of savages” — James Baldwin

Unfortunately, I had the luck to run into one of these people. In my building there was an older man, Boomer most likely, watching the news about Assad getting bombed on CNN. I looked on, not saying anything, when he sparked up a conversation about how good this was. I asked him how that would help—no answer. Unfortunately once he launched into a racial slur against me, I could not engage in a proper discussion. His stance essentially being that a bomb on Assad would solve everything and a bomb on Saddam would have solved everything too. I know. I know.

Again, this is with the knowledge of plenty of other air strikes already happening in the ME, to include Syria, and plenty of children dying at our hands. One friend, pro-Trump, mentioned the children dying with no sense of irony. Is this reaction a function of our dismal corporate media and what they choose to cover and what they choose to downplay? Or do the reactions speak of a child-like people who are easily duped? I’m not sure what the answer is—or which would be scarier—but I don’t expect things to get better any time soon.

We’ll see what happens, but given that the doomsday clock is closer to midnight, things aren’t looking good. That fellow citizens and the punditry don’t think things through will make sure of that.