Is it proof of the sad state of affairs that we are in when a fictional madman makes sense?  I’m referring to Heath Ledger’s portrayal of DC Comics’ “The Joker” in the 2008 box office smash, “The Dark Knight.”

At one point in the movie, Ledger’s character attempts to recruit another into abandoning the ways of “society” and giving in to his most base desires and instincts:

“You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go ‘according to plan.’ Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that – like – a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all ‘part of the plan.’”

Ledger’s Joker continues, stating that if something equally bad happens that isn’t a part of the “plan,” then everyone freaks out.

I believe we have bore witness to the truth in this statement these past two weeks with the tragic shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. 

While I thought the eloquent speeches and the beautiful memorial was the very least our government could do for those who fight and die in and for their wars, I could not help but ponder why this type of grand memorial is not performed for every soldier who dies daily in the government’s two-front war in Afghanistan and Iraq.  After all, more than 545 men and women who were assigned to Fort Hood have died in the last six years alone.  But then I came to the conclusion that no one really bats an eye at this fact because it is all – as the Joker claims – “according to plan.”

Everyday I turn on the news to find that the American casualties of this war are no longer spoken of in a special report, but reduced to the “ticker” at the bottom of the screen.

The alleged gunman, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, has been painted as a terrorist connected to Al Queda.  The media and our government would have you believe that it is solely terroristic Islam that’s to blame for this massacre.  Whether the allegations of Major Hasan’s ties are true or not, the one thing that our news agencies and our government (go figure) have not picked up on is the fact that killing people will mentally mess you up.  With every life that you take, a little piece of your own humanity dies with them.  It is no wonder that an estimated 25% out of every 103,788 soldiers returning from duty will have a mental health diagnosis and over half of these patients will have two or more distinct mental conditions.[1]

If we need further proof of the connection, we need look no farther than Timothy McVeigh.  Timothy McVeigh was a decorated Army veteran, earning the Bronze Star in the first Gulf War who would eventually bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.  McVeigh, who was trained in the Gulf War, wrote home to his family telling them that he felt like was turning into “an animal” “because day after day it gets easier to kill.”  His letters blatantly call out the hypocrisy of the United States.  In McVeigh’s letters to his friends and in his own diary, he writes:
  

“From this perspective, what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment. (The bombing of the Murrah building was not personal, no more than when Air Force, Army, Navy or Marine personnel bomb or launch cruise missiles against government installations and their personnel). I hope that this clarification amply addresses all questions.”[2] 

“The administration has said that Iraq has no right to stockpile chemical or biological weapons (“weapons of mass destruction”) – mainly because they have used them in the past.

Well, if that’s the standard by which these matters are decided, then the U.S. is the nation that set the precedent. The U.S. has stockpiled these same weapons (and more) for over 40 years. The U.S. claims that this was done for deterrent purposes during the “Cold War” with the Soviet Union. Why, then is it invalid for Iraq to claim the same reason (deterrence) — with respect to Iraq’s (real) war with and the continued threat of, its neighbor Iran.

If Saddam is such a demon and people are calling for war crimes charges and trials against him and his nation, why do we not hear the same cry for blood directed at those responsible for even greater amounts of “mass destruction” — like those responsible and involved in dropping bombs on the cities mentioned above.

The truth is, the U.S. has set the standard when it comes to the stockpiling and use of weapons of mass destruction.”[3]

Shane Claiborne, author and activist, writes of McVeigh: