The internet social media sites have lately been swamped with photos and videos of mass executions, raped women, severed heads and blood flowing like a river. A monster has been unleashed on the civilized world once again, but to be fair to Islam, this monster has been seen before. Among some of the many practitioners have been the ancient Greeks, Romans, Caananite cults, Medeival and Renaissance Christians (Yes, Catholics!), Turks, Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, Communists (in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Soviet Union), etc.
Islam does seem to have a greater degree of recidivism, however.
In all of these episodic spasms of violence, it is not usually the civilization itself, but death cults that well up within them and sweep up many in much the same way ordinary people can find themselves easily swept up in a vigilante mob and doing what hours before would have been unthinkable. Much is the same in the latest spasm of satanic slaughter in the Middle East.
We are alarmed at the persecution of Christians, their wholesale slaughter, and that of rival Muslim sects as well. We are sickened at the sight of their slaughter and want to do something about it.
But what?
Beyond prayer and consciousness raising, what else can be done? The answer is military, but in a war-weary nation that actually helped precipitate this by the sudden withdrawal of our troops (creating the vacuum for ISIS) there is no political will or stomach for another fight. So the answer is what?
A steady diet of these photos will only produce compassion fatigue, the genesis of which is illustrated in the Venn diagram below:
Moreover, there is a legitimate debate about the potentially voyeuristic participation in such atrocity and its effects on the psyche and soul. Such imagery becomes like pornography in requiring ever greater thresholds of depravity depicted in order to elicit arousal. This occurred with the nightly news images during the Vietnam War, which had no greater degree of atrocity than other wars, as the historical record continues to bear. Eventually we became outraged, then numbed, then seized with the desire to move on.
Teddy Kennedy led the defunding, we declared victory and came home. This created the vacuum for Pol Pot and his slaughter of over three million humans in just a few short years. In Iraq, history is repeating itself, and the question is what do we do with these images?
On FaceBook I have joined Deacon Greg Kandra in declaring that I will unfriend anyone who posts these images. I don’t need them on a daily basis, and their abundance will merely desensitize me. In just a few short weeks I have already lost the ability to feel shock and horror. It’s becoming just more of the same, and that’s the real shock and horror.
In a recent blog post, Fr. Dwight Longnecker declared that we dare not look away. I disagree. The real danger is incurring the fate of Lots’ wife, of turning to stone for having looked back.
If we truly care, we’ll act. We’ll actually DO something. That will begin with electing new national leadership and rebuilding our military. Death cults have only ever been stopped by military force, and this one is no exception. However, maintaining our edge means not looking on the horror with unfiltered gaze.
That’s the challenge.
Coming Home 
Excuse me, was Teddy Kennedy ever president?
As far as I can recall (and I was indeed quite small then, but I caught up on my reading later), the Nixon administration also had a bit of a hand in the U.S. troop withdrawal from Vietnam, no? And should the U.S. really have gone into Cambodia in the first place?
Pol Pot was a tyrant beyond words, but the only good thing you can say about the U.S.-backed Nol regime was that it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as what replaced it.
When it comes to Cambodia’s modern history, there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Lisa,
The administration couldn’t stop Congress from defunding the war, so the writing was on the wall.
I worked with a Cambodian man some years ago. He hightailed it to the USA when Pol Pot came to power. In discussing those times one day he looked at me and said, “Why did you people stop, you were winning? Why?”
I was too ashamed of our national lack of spine to answer him.
Lisa, I doubt you were ever small, at least not as far as the Nixon Administration was concerned. Now, if instead you were referring to the happy days shortly preceding the Taft Administration…
Ever been to Cambodia, Subvet? It offers plenty of chances to feel even more ashamed — who knows, if the U.S. hadn’t interfered there, Pol Pot might never have come to power at all. But we’ll never know that.
Teddy K was vehemently against the war, but I just think it’s odd, Dr. Nadal, that you singled him out like that. Why not mention Frank Church and John Sherman Cooper, whose names were on the Church-Cooper amendment in 1970? Why not single out Clifford Case?
Pt-109, in the interest of full disclosure, I voted for Nixon in ’72 in my elementary school’s mock election.
Lisa, as expected, in overtly antagonizing your host here, you show once again that you missed the point of his post. Wait… or maybe you actually understand the point of his post, but are covertly adding to the antagonism by moronically ignoring it. What I’m trying to say to you, Lisa, is…. good work!
Now, regarding you and full disclosure, Lisa, there are just too many jokes to choose from… I’m at a loss….
I do indeed understand the point of his post. I’m not “moronically ignoring it” — I’m asking him about a minor supporting fact in it, one which concerns a war whose history greatly interests me, and a part of the world in which I have a personal connection.
Also, I can’t help but wonder if our host singled out Ted Kennedy, from of all the many anti-Vietnam Senators, because Ted happened to be a pro-choice Catholic?
In the meantime, as we comment here, Obama has seen fit to take action. Let’s hope it helps the ghastly situation over there.
Lisa, you’re not fooling anyone. Either Dr. Nadal is away on vacation, and can’t wait to engage your frustration-venting drivel upon his return, or he refuses to engage you for reasons I specified above. My guess is… well, you know what it is. And, at least regarding this interchange, I’m done as well. See you next time! (If I’m lucky)
I’m not “fooling anyone” because I’m being totally and completely honest here — as always. And this time, I even went easy on the snark. I’m very involved with a charity that helps Cambodia, so I know the sad modern history of that country better than a lot of people.
Lisa, Why Teddy Kennedy? Why not Teddy? The man was in love with death. Be it a midnight tool around the Island with a young woman, 60 million babies ushered along to a premature trash heap under his steady guiding hand, or well, you get the point.
I perfectly understand why you do not admire (to say the least) a purported Catholic who believed not only in legal abortion, but that federal funds should be used to pay for them.
Teddy supported the efforts to defund the war at the time, but did not lead them. That was my point. The credit (blame?) for defunding belongs more to others.
I am beating a teeny tiny horse here, and it’s been dead for a long time.
Ah, Lisa, you got him! I didn’t think you’d do it either, I must confess! But I take defeat well — congratulations!
PS: And, Lisa, you lured him in with, as you say, “a teeny tiny horse that’s been dead for a long time.” When one thinks about that (except when one is sober perhaps), you might be more clever than your detractors give you credit for! Or it may not be cleverness, per se, but rather the indefatigable persistence with which you pursue your quarry that wins the day. Carpe diem, et non deficere! In any case, your doggedness is admirable, or perhaps sick. Speaking of your doggedness, can I take you coon hunting sometime? How’s your nose? Even though the thread has died a long time ago, much like your horse, this post is a tribute to you, Lisa Twaronite! Sublevo vitro bullae et succendam in te vestigio moveris!