A Manual For Benevolent Bombing – OpEd |
How to Liberate Your Way into a Rubble Pile
There is something deeply reassuring about a well-structured war.
Not the explosions, of course—those tend to ruin the aesthetic. The smoke, the screaming, the “inconvenient civilians” who insist on living where the bombs land. No, the comfort lies in the narrative. The choreography. The liturgical precision of turning high explosives into high-minded philosophy.
Because in the 21st century, war is no longer mere violence.
It is violence with a press release, a logo, and a marketing budget.
Step 1: We Don’t Bomb Countries. We Bomb “Regimes.”
Somewhere between a Pentagon briefing room and a D.C. public relations firm, a golden rule was carved into stone: you do not attack nations. You liberate them from themselves.
It is a linguistic miracle. You can flatten a capital city, but rest assured—it was not a sovereign country being destroyed. Just a “regime.” The people are merely unfortunate tenants trapped in a building we are demolishing for their own safety. This framing performs a neat magic trick: invasion becomes intervention, missiles become moral gestures, and oil geopolitics become a humanitarian rescue mission.
How could anyone object to freedom… when........