Bob Harris who frequently posts at Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World blog posted this commentary after his return from a month long trip to the Middle East. His vacation from current media left him shocked by the report of civilian deaths in Iraq when he came home. More shocking than the deaths themselves was the indifferent report by the news media. In fact, in order to make the news interesting, the focus of the reports was that a reporter was one of those killed in the attack. Bob's reaction should be what we should expect from all people of conscience, both here in the USA and elsewhere. Read the whole thing.

In the old analogy of the frog being killed by slowly heating the water in which it sits until it is boiled without ever jumping out, Bob's posting clarifies that the water is being heated around us and we, as Americans, are becoming de-sensitized to things that should shock us. It is exactly this type of numbed reaction to reports of (what is the best adjective here: "unfortunate"? "improper"? "unacceptable"? "illegal"? "evil"?) actions directed by our government in our names which makes it easier for even more attrocious acts to be done without the public objecting.

I honestly believe that we are in a situation similar to Germany around 1936. Hitler has been in power for a few years and is proud of the changes he has made around his country even as people there and elsewhere were concerned about what was developing there. If Bush is re-elected, I fear that we might well move towards the type of world domination by force that Hitler attempted as well as increased suppression of opposition forces at home. Despite the overwhelming military force which the USA currently has (comparable in many ways to the unstoppable forces Hitler had built up), I believe that ultimately the world and Americans of conscience would put a halt to the oppression and domination which Bush is attempting. However, the millions of people which would be hurt or killed by this before the neo-cons are stopped has the potential to be a tragedy at least as great as the evil wrought by Hitler.

We have an opportunity to stop Bush now by voting him out of office in November. The neo-cons will be easier to stop now than they will be in the four years following this election. Let us get out now rather than waiting to see how much hotter the water will get.