All the sins against humanity, abortion, euthanasia, war, violence, and victimization of all kinds, are the results of depersonalization. Whether it is “the unwanted pregnancy”, or worse, “the fetus” rather than “my son” or “my daughter;” whether it is “the enemy” rather than Joe or Harry (maybe Ahmed or Mohammed), the same depersonalization allows us to fulfill our own selfishness against the obstacle to my will. How many of our elderly, our parents and grandparents, live forgotten in isolation and loneliness? How many Afghan, Iraqi, Palestinian and American youths will we sacrifice to agonizing injuries and deaths for the sake of our political will? They are called “soldiers,” or “enemy combatants” or “civilian casualties” or any variety of other euphemisms to deny their personhood. But ask their parents or children! Pro-war is NOT pro-life! God weeps for our callousness.

Describes Peters’s way of thinking to a T. He needs our prayers, difficult as that may be.

Peters claims that he’s not saying Afghans are inferior, only that they’re different. And he goes on to point out that they’re different because, while we want good things for our children, Afghans want to murder their children and/or encourage their children to commit suicide. He also implies, bizarrely, that sexual hypocrisy and non-procreative sex are oddball alien traits that define Afghans in opposition to Americans.

Peters derides the idea that we can get anywhere in Afghanistan if we assume that Afghans want physical and economic security. There are limits to how much we can accomplish if we start with that assumption. But we managed to avoid an even worse catastrophe in Iraq in part by belatedly embracing the limited goals of providing security and basic services to as many Iraqis as possible. If we’re going to be in Afghanistan at all I think that we’ll be best off, morally and strategically, if we start from the assumption that Afghans are people.

Or we could start from Peters’ assumption that Afghans are perverted aliens who hate their children. Let’s see how far that gets us! Best case scenario: nowhere. Worst case scenario: genocide. Great!

It’s remarkable to see that after a spectacular electoral shellacking, the Republican establishment just double down on the simple-minded idiocy that got them there in the first place. Taxes bad. Muslims bad. Spending bad. Joe the Plumber good.