These were the exact words uttered by President Joe Biden at a press conference held soon after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
It’s a formulaic response uttered just about every time (and these are very frequent, almost like clockwork) there is a violent shooting incident by American presidents, governors, police chiefs, political commentators, television news hosts and anyone who just needs to say something… anything… as opposed to doing something… anything.
The ugly truth, however, is that there is indeed a place for this kind of violence in America. There must be. Otherwise, those in charge would have stopped it decades ago. There is either no political will or politicians (and perhaps American citizens themselves) love their Second Amendment more than life itself.
Politicians on both sides of the imaginary American political divide will say it’s complicated. They will say freedom is a tricky issue. It’s not so simple. They will say that people need their freedoms protected. People need guns to protect themselves and their families – ironically, from each other and others protecting themselves and their families. They will say America is a free nation. Blah! Blah! Blah!
Bullshit! It’s not complicated. The barrier to a society free of repeated gun violence exists only in the minds of those who love their guns more than life.
The ugly truth is that America is a sick society. They even admit it openly by blaming nearly everything on mental health. It’s the home of the brave. You would have to be because everyone’s so tolerant of the sickness.
That’s not even the worst part. America routinely exports this violence to the rest of the world. They call it foreign policy.
While there have been four successful and now two failed assassination attempts at US presidents over the years, the Presidents themselves are not averse to carrying out assassinations of their own in pursuit of established imperialist policy. America has carried out targeted assassinations in Japan, Vietnam, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, China, Afghanistan, Rwanda, El Salvador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Haiti and Yemen. In recent years, drones have become the weapon of choice.
America also supplies these instruments of death to many of its vassal states around the world, who use them with impunity against manufactured enemies, like right now in the Gaza Strip. The orgy of violence is therefore not confined to within its borders. It affects everyone in the world. In truth, the world needs to be protected from America.
Following the recent assassination attempt on Trump and hot on the heels of the furore over Biden’s mental fitness to continue serving as president in a second term, there’s a horrid joke doing the rounds that America came within inches of having two presidential candidates with no brains.
However, jokes aside, it’s not clear if America has what it takes to solve its violence problem. While the politicians don’t seem to have the will, the people themselves are fixated on celebrity worship to take matters into their own hands.
So, when I hear Americans whining about violence, don’t give me a bloody ear for calling out the hypocrisy.
lenny unencumbered 