This past week or so saw some of the worse high profile gun violence and killings in the USA. With 14 dead in a NY citizenship center and 3 police officers gunned down in Pennsylvania, the violence is just overwhelming. In the latter case, the gunman was reportedly wearing a bullet-proof vest and armed with an AK-47, shot gun and a hand gun. He gunned down 3 police at the door step before pinning down a SWAT team as their vehicle approached the house.
Terrible. I remember an ex-colleague of mind relating his experience of the USA. He was ex-Army reserve, served in Bosnia, had real firefights and so on. While on exchange in the USA, his team was sent out on a mission to rescue two police officers who had stumbled upon a drug deal and were engaged in heavy firefight with heavily armed gangsters.
He tells me he remembers coming in on board a Blackhawk chopper and as they were "ropping" off the chopper onto the ground below, the gunner in the chopper was firing away with his 7.62mm machine gun down at the "terrorists" below. And he remembered thinking to himself, "Gosh, this is America. This is supposed to be the land of the free." His team was fully armed with automatic weapons and body armour and it was a full on firefight against the drug dealers before they eventually had the situation under control.
I think the USA is no longer the land of the free. Many parts of the country is wrecked with violence and killing. I think its time the US government started tackling terrorism at home first instead of meddling in other countries problems and usually making the problems worse.
On a side note, think if something like this were to have happened in China, the international press would definitely play up the issue and suggest that the violence is somehow linked to some repressed ethnic group or of some ill-treated and marginalised Chinese citizen who finally lost it after not getting "justice" from the local government. Either way, the Chinese government almost always gets blamed NO MATTER what they do or don't do. And we've seen this time and time again in the international news.
I remember the time when it was reported in India that a pick-pocket who was caught by the police was tied by the ankles and dragged through the streets on a police motorcycle. No one in the international press raised any questions. Is it because India is a democracy and China is not? If this were to happen in China, the international press would be all over the story. They'll claim among other things, human rights violations, police brutality, and government inaction and corruption. These seem to be the favourite topics raised.
Irony. Full of irony.
Terrible. I remember an ex-colleague of mind relating his experience of the USA. He was ex-Army reserve, served in Bosnia, had real firefights and so on. While on exchange in the USA, his team was sent out on a mission to rescue two police officers who had stumbled upon a drug deal and were engaged in heavy firefight with heavily armed gangsters.
He tells me he remembers coming in on board a Blackhawk chopper and as they were "ropping" off the chopper onto the ground below, the gunner in the chopper was firing away with his 7.62mm machine gun down at the "terrorists" below. And he remembered thinking to himself, "Gosh, this is America. This is supposed to be the land of the free." His team was fully armed with automatic weapons and body armour and it was a full on firefight against the drug dealers before they eventually had the situation under control.
I think the USA is no longer the land of the free. Many parts of the country is wrecked with violence and killing. I think its time the US government started tackling terrorism at home first instead of meddling in other countries problems and usually making the problems worse.
On a side note, think if something like this were to have happened in China, the international press would definitely play up the issue and suggest that the violence is somehow linked to some repressed ethnic group or of some ill-treated and marginalised Chinese citizen who finally lost it after not getting "justice" from the local government. Either way, the Chinese government almost always gets blamed NO MATTER what they do or don't do. And we've seen this time and time again in the international news.
I remember the time when it was reported in India that a pick-pocket who was caught by the police was tied by the ankles and dragged through the streets on a police motorcycle. No one in the international press raised any questions. Is it because India is a democracy and China is not? If this were to happen in China, the international press would be all over the story. They'll claim among other things, human rights violations, police brutality, and government inaction and corruption. These seem to be the favourite topics raised.
Irony. Full of irony.
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