Simon Kent’s Dead Pool

Simon Kent’s Dead Pool: The Subjectivity of Masssacres - It Leads When "We" Bleed

Ottawa Sun: October 2013

Concerning yesterday’s killings at the Washington Navy Yard, Quebecor columnist Simon Kent boldly admonishes those who would, “…pick up a firearm and seek to set the world… to rights by murdering the innocent.” Kent was notably silent after a U.S. Army Sergeant recently entered an Afghan village and casually gunned down sixteen civilians. This traumatized soldier was sentenced to life in prison while the people who sent him on three grueling combat tours enjoy impunity. One of those notables, Colin Powell; once said that Iraqi civilian casualties were,”…not a matter of concern to him.”

While we will soon know all details of the U.S. Navy dead; do we ever learn the identities of dead Afghans or Iraqis on our local news? The civilian victims of Western military action in Iraq and Afghanistan remain conveniently anonymous while we know the life story of every poor soul murdered on our own soil. As Kent writes: why?

Were Western media to publish the names and faces of collateral Middle East dead; there might be a public rejection of foreign military intervention. However, certain interests can’t permit such pacifism so co-operative media outlets filter reality to ensure that our foreign military adventures remain sanitized. The public relations lessons of Vietnam have not been forgotten.