Tragic Photos...and Opportunities

Here is a belated post about 9/11.  I will not identify the blog from whence it came until the end, lest you be prejudiced against the content simply by the author.

The blog first posts three tragic images (the first World Trade Center building begins to collapse; the wreckage of a hotel in Kenya destroyed by terrorists; a screaming young Iraqi girl, covered in blood), asks "What is this?", then provides an "opportunity" themed quote related to each one.

Then the author ties them all together:

For normal people, it's an unmitigated tragedy when their fellow citizens are killed in terrorist attacks or wars. Normal people cry, become afraid, and think of children who now have no parents and parents who now have no children.

For our would-be "leaders," however - in every country - the situation is different. Of course, they pretend to feel the same as normal people. They give teary-eyed speeches about sorrow and suffering.

And yet, behind their tears, there seems to be something else. When they think no one is looking, you glimpse another expression flitting across their face. You think it couldn't be. But - yes, incredibly enough, they're smiling. Because before the bodies are cold, before the mothers have stopped shrieking, our leaders are thinking:

This is really a FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY.

And for them it is. It's an opportunity for them to do whatever they wanted to do before, but couldn't get away with. It's an opportunity for them to smear anyone who criticizes them as disloyal. It's an opportunity for them to become much more powerful than they ever could be in peacetime. Leaders love war. That's why there's so much of it.

 

Thus we see a subtle erosion of privacy and rights, some world-stage cowboying, more hatred of the U.S. and a new generation of would-be terrorists and actual terrorists, all in the name of protection.

 

The original post is here, wherein you can see the images referred to and the author.