to notice that the killings in the USA

[butisthismyname]

Are HUGE NEWS, but the children who are being shot and killed every day in syria, the children who live on the streets and die every day in south america and the children who are dying in third world countries are 'part of the furniture'? I know what has just happened is horrific and sad and awful, but it's just so fucking unfair. It's like the twin towers - OMG the USA is in trouble, lets be outraged ( not negating that but just an example) When will we be as understanding and sympathetic and make what is happening everywhere else in the world as important and newsworthy as this?

I haven't read the entire thread yet, still working through it... but I felt this one point really must be mentioned.

OP, you (and others) seem to be blaming the US for things being huge news here. If you have issues with British coverage of US events, then surely your spew of bile should be pointed at British media... not at the US??!?!?!! The US doesn't have any control over what is on the British news.

Good grief.

News corporations........Murdoch......tentacles all over the globe

If the UK press report what happens here, and that press is genuinely independently based in the UK then it will be because of our "special relationship" with the U.S

That relationship is strengthened by the tacit support of British citizens to our Governments relationship with the U.S government.

It is in the interests of our political class to continue in it's relationship with the U.S, to do this it needs the agreement of the people.

That is why it is so important, I would also add that mainstream politics is window dressing. Those that hold power do so through the Fed, IMF, WTO and other organisations, those organisations have no national loyalty but have every interest in keeping Brits sympathetic to the American political class and their policies. These corporate interests own the media.

No it is racism.

If threads were started seizing on and picking at other nation's inadequacies when they're at a time of national grief there would be uproar but hey it's the US so it's carte blanche for character assassination.

If this happened when Palestine,Israel,Syria etc(all of which have failings of their own)suffered tragedy there would be uproar.

But hey lets not think of those parents praying their kid's name would be next on the list for them to collect noooo they're waaay too undeserving let's instead focus on other nations which for some reason the US and only the US seem to have sole responsibility for and use the situation to bash the US yet again.

Yes, Polkadot, the rampant anti-Americanism here sometimes just floors me. The US has flaws just like any other country (UK included), but the US seems to be the popular one to bash. It does get old (and shows a significant lack of originality).

www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/afghanistan-and-pakistan/2109-killing-children-in-afghanistan-is-now-legitimate-says-us-army

You can't bring back those poor poor children from that school but you could stop defending the American state. And call upon your Government to stop this war on fantasy bogie men.

If people can not tell the difference btw a state and it's people ( I dislike the conservatives) then what hope is there of having any kind of discussion about why the press continues to choose to publish only what they want us to see & hear.

Christmas, do you think that could possibly, just maybe, have something to do with the fact that the US is the most powerful nation in the world? Perhaps?

And that makes it okay to bash them? Just because it's a powerful nation? Interesting... that's hardly a resounding cry for equality in the media, is it?

It is hardly a resounding cry for equality when one nation has at it's disposal military hardware that could wipe out the world while it denies the same capabilities to other nations. It isn't equality when a nation can just send drones over and target people, when they usurp other world leaders for economic reasons. Look into Chille if you don't understand. It isn't equality when American corporations come to the UK and make millions and pay no tax and it isn't equality when Rumsfeld walks into the war torn mess he has created with American corporations walking behind him to make money out of that mess.

We do what America tells us to - or, at the very least, we are strongly encouraged to. America, very naturally, wants us to share its grief over Sandy Hook. Very naturally, we do share it. America wants us to overlook its targeting of children in Afghanistan and its 'collateral' killing of children elsewhere. By and large, we do overlook it. This happens because of America's power, not in spite of it. Isn't that worth questioning?

Um... and the UK doesn't have it's hand in a few things as well?

I think that you speaking for the whole country as to what "America wants" is overstepping tbh.

Again... if you have an issue with something specific, deal with that specific thing. But don't drag something dreadful that has happened to a small community into your war on America's politics. You lose your "high moral ground" there IMO.

But the event triggers the train of thought. My "moral ground" isn't so high that I can rise above horror at the senseless murder of children, neither would I want to be unaffected by it.

Of course the UK does disgusting things. Nobody's even hinted otherwise.

Ok, lets try this a different way, Bush was deemed to be a bit gung ho, he liked a good cow boy film and liked guns. Guns are powerful and when you point them at people those people either do as you say or they don't because they are dead.

Now, American gun laws are to blame, in China the man stabbed the children with a knife, they are very badly hurt but they are, at least alive. Americans want their guns and the chinese want a safe state in which to bring up their children. However they have a problem cutting up their food if they are not permitted to have knives. The Americans want a safe place to live but they are unwilling to stop playing cow boys or cops and robbers.

Knives have several uses.......guns only one.

Still doesn't excuse dragging an dreadful event that happened to a small community into someone's personal war against American politics.

It's a bit pot and kettle IMO anyway.

And using George Bush (Jr especially, but Sr as well) as an example? I certainly didn't vote for them.

speaking for the whole country as to what "America wants"

Difference between policies and individuals, as above.

America doesn't want regular school shootings. But neither does it want to subdue the media coverage (when it has been shown that these atrocities are copied), and it resists gun controls.

All of the issues raised on this thread are being energetically discussed in the US, especially since Friday's event. It's not some underhand foreign attack!!

Hmmmmmm sorry China(kind of big and powerful country itself) has waaaaay more to be critical of and actually Afghanistan,Syria,Palestine,Israel etc have a huge amount of failings and an awful lot to berate about but let's just turn a blind eye to them as well they're not American are they.

Racist views are always hard to stomach but at a time like this they're beyond the pale.

again with the "America doesn't want"... "but neither does it want..."

Are you now the official spokesperson for the US?

"Americans want a safe place to live but they are unwilling to stop playing cowboys or cops and robbers"-really every American,you speak for them all.

You don't think stereotyping an entire nation maybe ever so slightly racist.

... doesn't excuse dragging an dreadful event that happened to a small community into ... politics ...

See, that "dragging" makes your comment sentimental. The image of a burning child running under napalm in Vietnam was used to help stop that war. Would it have been better to simply feels sorrow for the tragedy of that child and her village instead of "dragging" into a fiercely political debate? Read her story. I think not.

Are you now the official spokesperson for the US?

No. I read the fucking news.

So American citizens will hand in their guns when called to do so? Will they?

Are there not people in America calling themselves patriots and militias?

Are Americans' sick of these shooting or not?

In terms of the American State, they will never hand in their guns and they will never reign in their intentions of maintaining power across the globe. Do they set a good example to their citizens?

If it is racism, to question the imperialist intentions of the American state, or whether American people will hand in their guns and accept change to their constitution then report and MN HQ will gladly remove all of my comments. If it is racism to question media bias, again report.

Stereotyping an entire nation is racist.

Banging on and on about a nation's home policy and whether they'll change their constitution is pointless as it's their own personal choice.If you don't like it don't visit.

Why don't you bang on and on about China's human rights record or Afghanistan's treatment of women instead as the USA bashing is getting boring.

Are you asking if I've read that story? Yep. Quite some time ago.

Wow. I had to idea the qualifications for the job were so wide open.

Actually, it's just interesting (in a "view the specimen under the glass" kind of way) to observe the froth factor at this point. I find it vastly amusing that people think they have such a handle on the thoughts of the entire population of a country that they can make assumptions about it all.

But hey, carry on frothing, if you must.

I'll just wander off, pondering over glass houses and stones, pots and kettles, and wondering whether the irony will be lost on those who claim that American don't "get" irony.

Quite a lot of the posts in this thread have been about the right to free expression and the nature of political criticism. I'm giving up now ... as I have on very many threads recently :( It's sad old world when people won't stick up for their freedoms.

^I am very concerned for ordinary American citizens but I will not be distracted and I will not be hog washed into sympathy for the American political elite and it's desire to spread economic misery upon all other nations whilst ignoring the plight of it's own impoverished citizens.

Look into the problems of Mexican workers, the rural poor, tented cities, people who are losing their homes

That is racism?????? or is that concern for ordinary American citizens?

I came to this discussion because I find it upsetting that a state allows it's citizens the means to randomly kill it's own children,

I question whether such a political elite actually gain anything from allowing this to happen time and time again. I question whether American people will gladly hand in their guns when asked to for the sake of their children and I wonder what the state would have to gain from taking those guns back, in a country where civil liberties is under threat.

It isn't as straight forward as saying the state is benevolent, it isn't. It has been proven not to be time and time again in it's dealings with the rest of the world.

Mini save your concern(which I find ever so slightly patronising)-there are many,many other nations far more deserving.