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“Sorry” – Seems To Be The Hardest Word

It’s all so cosy. After headlining the floods in the mid-West, the suffering of thousands of Americans whose homes are now under four or more feet of water, the subject matter turned political as American generals in charge of the “surge” in Iraq argued whether troop levels should be maintained or reduced, in view of the impending presidential elections now only fourteen months away.

Throughout it all we waited, expectant, feeling sure it was just a matter of time.

The subject matter moved on from presidential hopeful John Edwards and his sudden belligerence towards Democrat front runner, Hilary Clinton, to the two jets in Florida six months ago that failed to collide, despite the best efforts of those determined never to upgrade the air traffic control systems, so woefully out of date a catastrophe in American airspace is now just a matter of time.

Surely now was the moment, we thought, still expectant, only to watch in amazement the segment illustrating an American woman arranging an artificial turf football field in Alaska, and a couple of old ‘YouTube’ videos of otters making love.

While the sad news is generally at the start of the program, occasionally a really heart-wrenching item is kept back for better effect, so optimism failed to deflate totally until the final segment – an interview with some unknown, overweight, American soul singer whose claim to fame was…….well, frankly, we didn’t wait to find out.

Was it expecting too much? Is it a lot to ask?

Last night, the NBC Nightly News spewed forth an abundance of sanctimonious claptrap about a mother who had, apparently, “earned” the right to stick two gold stars in her window because she had lost two sons in Iraq. We remember, in school years ago, earning two gold stars for writing good punctuation in an English class. It felt good, even though we were branded “swot” by the rest of the school. It was a lot easier than losing half one’s family in a wealthy egomaniac’s war.

And so it ended, with the unknown, overweight, soul singer. There was no apology; no moment of sadness. Not even a mention.

In Afghanistan today, the news that three British soldiers were killed when an American bomber pilot dropped his bomb in “the wrong place”, was not deemed worthy of broadcast on the NBC Nightly News. The artificial turf on a football field in Alaska; the jets that never collided in Florida, and otters making love on ‘Youtube’, were deemed more important to the American people than the lives of three British soldiers sacrificed to the carelessness of an American bomber pilot, probably high on amphetamines.

It’s not the first time. Since 2003, twelve British military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan have died as a result of American “friendly fire”.

What an utterly grotesque phrase that is.

Can there ever be such a thing as “friendly fire”? Not if you’re on the receiving end. Is it coincidence that the Americans have killed so many of their allies? They’re quite adept at killing their own, as well. Only it takes them a while to own up to that.

The American people are taught that their military is the best in the world. It’s a lie. In fact, they are ill-disciplined, badly trained, and trigger-happy.

It was just such amateurish behavior that cost the lives of three British service personnel today.

Was it asking too much? Would the reputation of the great Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News be irretrievably tarnished were he to utter the words, “We’re sorry.”

Does he really believe his interview with the unknown, overweight, soul singer was more important than reporting the facts. It is, after all, what a news anchor is supposed to report.

But then, it’s not in the American psyche to say, “I’m sorry.” Why, after all, should this so perfect of nations feel the need to apologize? So it killed a few foreigners, what the heck! They got in the way.

What does it matter? After all, it’s not as though they were Americans.

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6 Replies to ““Sorry” – Seems To Be The Hardest Word”

  1. RJ, RJ, RJ….change the channel. All of our news media is pretty bad but NBC is fighting Faux for bottom. Then again that might not help much what with other news outlets sponsoring porn star debates and covering prescient cats.

    Willie Geist must die.

  2. “the wrong place”…oops…sorry…but we DO kill a lot more of our own than yours! So smile. Shit happens, yes?

  3. NYM – ah, but change the channel to – what? NBC, ABC, and CBS are the major news vendors in the US, leaving aside the twenty-four hour cable channels that laughingly call themselves “news media”. The only viable alternative is PBS – an excellent service but not in the mainstream for most Americans. I’m interested to hear what “average America” is being fed, and “average America” watches those three channels (all equally insipid, in my opinion) for its news consumption, when they’re not glued to CNN or FNC. Don’t get me started on them!

    Willie Geist must, indeed, die. Preferably slowly, with just a hint of boiling oil.

  4. Jerry – only because our lads learned a long time ago to keep their heads down whenever the US military were in the area. Your guys have more faith in their compadres than we do – hence more of them get killed!

  5. RJ: is true. I channel flip worse than any guy. I look for the nuggets that interest me or might bear watching unless I’m just there to poke fun.

    PBS in my area is probably the worst in the country. 90% of it is shows about entertainment venues in Las Vegas. They never even air most PBS generated content. Worthless.

  6. How can any form of “fire” be called “friendly” when it ends up with the death of someone? The fact is that this isn’t the first time the american gung ho military have “mistakenly” killed british soldiers and it won’t be the last! Americans apologise..ha.;that will be the day!

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