Bloodthirsty America

I've very recently read an alarming study by MIT Press that surveyed America's - and I stress, this is a survey asking ordinary people, not government officials - willingness to kill civilians under certain circumstances. As the title implies, it is not good.

The nuking of Nagasaki. The scenarios in the survey were designed to emulate the real life events of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I'm sure many of my readers (though I'm not sure one can quantify my readers as "many") have seen the below illustration depicting the basic results of this very survey. I myself had seen it months ago. But until I had read the report in detail (though still not all of it), I had not fully appreciated the gravity of the situation.

Let us get this out of the way. In a hypothetical war, nearly 60% of Americans would approve of a decision by the USG to conduct a nuclear strike on Mashhad, killing 2,000,000 civilians, if that avoided a ground war that would cost 20,000 US troops. The difference in numbers is staggering. The lack of care for the lives of civilians is abhorrent. Turn that into a conventional airstrike, killing "only" 100,000 Iranian civilians, and slightly over 1 third of Americans would actively make the decision to kill the Iranian civilians.

Genocidal maniacs is the term I kept using when I was referring to the respondents of this survey, as I discussed this with my friends.

But you've probably seen this before, as I have said.

It is the details that drive home the point. First of all. This survey was conducted extremely professionally. The terminology deliberately avoided using emotive language in order to influence opinion - Iranian civilians is the neutral term used, not innocent Iranian women and children. Nor in fact, "Muslim civilians" which may trigger a different sort of response from someone of a more bigoted persuasion. The samples were 780 people questioned by reputable polling firm YouGov. Everything was done intelligently, unbiased, and carefully.

Our surveys reveal a strong pull of retribution and a tendency for individuals to rationalize the killing of others by claiming that it was their fault.

There were also some additional questions, including justifications for responses. Those who favoured the more endlösung options "reasoned":

“They were dancing in the streets and partying in favor of what happened to the twin towers”; “They hate us and they will violate any agreement”; “Islam is a religion of fanatics [and] they need to be taught a lesson”... “Kill the cockroaches”;... “The article said that Iran attacked the U.S. ship first. The U.S. is not the aggressor here”; “Iran is ruled by radicals who have no regard for innocent life”; and “My first choice would be to decapitate the snake—wipe out the capital—wipe it clean—every living thing.”

Eesh. I thought this was just on the internet. But now YouGov surveys are showing this is it. This is America.

I could go on, but I suggest you read if not the full, but at least parts of the report here. There is a hell of a lot of extra questions and scenarios, as well as analysis and cross-referencing of various demographic, political and historical trends.

I will just make one final conclusion. This report has significantly altered my views and threat perceptions. While before I thought America was a warmongering government ruling a war weary people, I see it is still so, but that hasn't dampened the people's willingness to commit mass murder. If anything, it has increased it, making them more in favour of outrageous killing of innocents. It brings me back to what I've had for quite a while now. A feeling that we are ill prepared, not just militarily but mentally. Not only is our military in desperate need of a wide and complete modernisation, our people seem to have some sort of obsession by showing themselves as loving America and Americans. Well my message to those guys is to get real. Half of America want to do to us 10 times worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Think on that for a bit.

That is all.