Allergic to Violence? Hillary Clinton’s reaction to bin Laden raid by Rants and Raves
It appears that a now iconic photo of White House officials watching the Osama Bin Laden raid live with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with her hand over her mouth has been explained as an allergy rather than anguish. Which is strange that anyone would consider it necessary to explain such a reaction, in light of the fact that watching a very dangerous military intervention live would cause many of us to do the same, and it would likely be out of anguish. Perhaps it’s because it would be unseemly for the greatest military nation on earth to be shocked by violence? After all, Barack Obama looks intense, yet carries enough sang froid for anyone to think that this is just a bad day in the office.
One might say that the look of anguish needed to be explained to the American public so as to put their minds at ease, that this is not a shocking or terrible moment, but rather, just a simple operation for which anguish is not required. Even in today’s cynical age, it’s a wonder that anyone should be expected to witness a live firefight resulting in multiple deaths without anguish- even if they do happen to be Secretary of State.
Perhaps it’s because she’s a woman. It’s hard to be part of an all boys club when you shirk from the sight of blood or icky things. So just as your guy friend is not crying when you go to the movies, he actually “has something in his eye”, Hillary is not anxious during the operation, she’s merely “holding back a cough.”
I understand that America needs to keep its’ tough image, especially as it polices the world and eliminates its enemies, but that doesn’t mean that they need to be as stoic about it. They can still be human beings. Violence should shock people; especially when it’s real and not the video-game variety (although video games are getting up there on both realism and shock value). And if the Secretary of State looks concerned, well, there’s good reason to be concerned. The stakes in this situation are pretty high and there are real lives on the line for the special forces carrying out the mission.
America wants to appear strong in the world, but it doesn’t need to appear entirely insensitive. It won’t undermine your ability to make hard decisions to appear anxious about them; indeed, the hardest decisions cause us to be anxious, and it’s our ability to still make them which makes us strong.
Read RANTS & RAVES : http://mikey-rantsandraves.blogspot.com
Read this blog post at: http://mikey-rantsandraves.blogspot.com/2011/05/allergic-to-violence.html
Mika Oehling’s initial blog (mission statement?): I want to use my blog as a forum for creative expression and as an outlet for creative expression that I don’t otherwise have in my life. And I’ve also decided to stop bothering friends and family alone with my rants and raves, but decided to share them with the world so that it can bother them as well.
I’ve decided to structure my blog as a series of rants and raves. There will always be one topic, but sometimes there are both opinions expressed about the exact same thing. That’s not because I’m bipolar, it’s because I’m a Libra and I tend to see both sides of every argument and can’t make up my own mind. Yes, I am that annoying person you see in the grocery store, furrowed brow, trying desperately to make sense of the different varieties of canned soup. And I never understood their crazy sodium content.
