The Daily Write: Today's chief complaint (August 31, 2013)

Writing Prompt: Today's chief complaint

 

I can't tell who to believe, or how much context is missing. This potential strike on Syria - is it the right thing to do? As a friend pointed out today, killing a dog for fur to line the collar of a coat and calling it fox doesn't make it more bad than using real fox fur. Because it was a chemical weapon and not a bomb, or shower of bullets, is that reason enough for our country to kill more people, possibly families, in pursuit of some sort of justice? Are we just trying to assert our ultimate authority on the world stage?
  

Part of me thinks, "yes, we have to do something." But you know, that part of me knows nothing of war (thank god). "Doing something" sounds a lot easier when it's in the abstract. But there is nothing abstract about murder. I heard NPR reporters interviewing people yesterday who said that the UN inspectors had solid evidence that chemical weapons were used. They said over 1,400 people, including over 400 children died. This is unconscionable. But why are we intervening in Syria and we left Sudan alone? What about The Congo? There have been mass genocides going on for the last decade, for years, forever really. Why are we more likely to "intervene" (bomb) Syria than Sudan? What do they have that we want?
  
My chief complaint is that I can't trust the chief. I can't tell who is telling which half truths and how bad the lies are. I can't recognize the lies, but I know they are being told. If there's one thing I've learned as an adult is that we are never told the entire story by politicians, and leaders, and those wielding a great deal of power. In fact, it's so bad that the level of deceit is hard to fathom. It calls into question all the principles I was raised believing.
  

I wish I knew the truth, and how to speak truth to power, and how to stop the continual atrocities humans wield upon each other.