Got to say, the Iraq war is the gift that keeps on giving...nightmares.
Back in the day when the Russians were being beaten by our brave allies and surrogates the Muhajadeen, there was a scare about something called yellow rain. Supposedly a weaponized toxin that did horrible things to people. One of the problems with proving it lied in the condition of the bodies of the Afghans supposedly hit with the stuff. The Afghans would find bodies in states of advanced decomposition, and blame a lot of that on the supposed agent. You see, in Islamic culture the dead are buried immediately, and treated with respect. To not do so is to violate the person even more than death...
So, this story from the Post is very telling. If you find references to "Bob" unfeeling or offensive, well, you aren't a soldier, a cop, a fireman or anyone who consistently deals with horror. You objectify in order to deal at the moment. As I sit at my desk, I have a plaque of Murphy's Laws under my copy of the collective bargaining agreement. (Says something about the future of labor relations in this country and my firm, I guess. Two are critically apt in this case:
"If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will go wrong is the one that will do the most damage" and --
"Left to themselves, things always go from bad to worse."
Got that right, homey...
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