"The problem is, as soon as you open the door to violence you lose control of it: getting the thugs to work for you is cool, but be careful about feeding that slippery thug system lest it come back to bite you in the ass."

Indeed.

I am angry that American military adventurists have learned so little. Their Cold-War proxy pissing match with the Soviets decided to destabilize Afghanistan because it couldn't tolerate democracy if it elects Socialists. They found some violent outsider thugs to support and turned a ragtag bunch of zealots into a trained armed force known today as the Taliban.

After the Cold War these foreigners found funding for their firebreathing intolerence in US petrodollars channelled through the hideous Saudi govt that the US always backs and apologizes for even as it tries to remold African and Asian Islam into its own intolerant version.

Its all to common. Western bullies destabilize moderates, and then conveniently forget that their own creations are their own doing. They then point to the monsters they create and unleash as a reason for more interference and destabilization.

The most recent bunch of "thugs" we thought we could get to work for us were called the Sons of Iraq when the US occupiers funded the so-called "good insurgents;" today this US created creature is called ISIL.

But even there the whole insurgency was the creation of the de-Bathification policy imposed by US appointees in stubborn headed ignorance and against all advice by those who had any practical experience in Iraq. Was any of this worth it for the US? To destabilize Iraq just to ensure control over American access to the oil supply?

Life is bad enough in far too many regions of the world. And there are far too many thugs willing to perpetrate what limited violence they can to further their goal; even violence towards children.

But its hard to look at the world, seeing where the greatest number of children are being killed and not be angry at selfish short-sighted US policies that have caused the deaths of so many children.

Meanwhile, while the Western world decries the violence in the Muslim world and conveniently forgets the US hand behind the creation of all the worst players, we continue to see more and more schoolchildren living under the threat of drug cartel violence which is entirely the outcome of fierce and unnecessary drug policies from the nation who has little regard for what its drug laws create.

The Taliban taught us nothing about ISIL, and Prohibition taught us nothing about the Cartels.

But the bloodshed in Pakistan has given the hawks and jingoists a brief breather. Even they note that this was denounced as unIslamic. And even they don't have the nerve to tell the survivors and the grieving that their religion is to blame and that they need to be more forceful in their denunciations or otherwise be complicit.

But we can expect that when the news cycle turns to something else, the Islamophobes won't be chastened by the far too high price that Muslims and Muslim children are paying. And we also know that the xenophobes will use the violence created by their creatures as a way of deploring the local cultures and values they put an end to, while at the same time believing that no amount of violence towards children at home ( even state sanctioned executions ) are a reason to denounce American culture.

It would be better for all if America stayed at home, fixed its broken culture, and worked on living up to its original ideals that made it a model to emulate throughout much of the globe. Every time it gets involved in nationbuilding, its undermines those values and cuts a swath of violence where it goes.

I am saddened by the loss of life. And angered by those who profited by setting it up. And even more angry that the cycle seems to go on, and that I will have to grieve all over again in the future over something that could be foreseen and prevented.

Dante