Indefensible nation: US hypocrisy astonishes the world

Americans have lost their ability for introspection, thereby revealing their astounding hypocrisy to the world. US War Secretary Robert Gates has condemned the Associated Press and a reporter, Julie Jacobson, embedded with US troops in Afghanistan, for taking and releasing a photo of a US Marine who was wounded in action and died from his injury. The photographer was on patrol with the Marines when they came under fire. She found the courage and presence of mind to do her job. Her reward is to be condemned by the warmonger Gates as "insensitive." Gates says her employer, the Associated Press, lacks "judgment and common decency." The American Legion jumped in and denounced the Associated Press for a "stunning lack of compassion and common decency." To stem opposition to its wars, the War Department hides signs of American casualties from the public. Angry that evidence escaped the censor, the War Secretary and the American Legion attacked with politically correct jargon: "insensitive," "offended," and the "anguish," "pain and suffering" inflicted upon the Marine's family. The War Department sounds like it is preparing a harassment tort.