Two Tragedies

 

Pic courtesy CNN

The two tragedies I'm referring to, gentle reader, are the war in Gaza and the media's response to it.

Every war is a tragedy, a failure of rationality, and an exploitation of what is evil in the minds of men.

The current Middle East conflicts (and there are many) provide a textbook example of human tragedy. Daily, civilians are dying, and whether they are "innocent" or not makes no difference.

I learned in Vietnam fifty years ago that the military will always classify a dead civilian as "enemy" and by that definition not innocent and deserving of death. Much the same is happening in Gaza at the moment. Maybe Gazans support Hamas and maybe not, but I doubt a child can be a true supporter of any ideology.

To begin to explore the reasons for the current conflict is a can of worms, and depends to an extent on what version of history you accept. I won't go there, except to say it's embedded in the religions and culture in that part of the world. 

What is abundantly clear is that media takes sides based on their biases, and discerning the facts from the reporting is all but impossible.

Social media is worse, because it lacks the filter of what passes as journalism these days.

To see people in Sydney and other state capitals waving flags, both of Palestine and Israel, is complete idiocy in Australia. 

The only cause worth the action of taking to the streets is the cause of peace, and nobody seems to be prepared to support it.

We live in strange and remarkably irrational times...