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I have now seen quite a few Americans express their shock at the current events in the US by saying "This is not Baghdad". To me, it's another way of saying "This cannot be happening to us" - horrible things can only happen elsewhere. Well... (
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This is the same exact sentiment that so many people had at the outbreak of the wars in the former Yugoslavia. I have heard and seen my parents utter it in early 1992, and well into the first couple of months of the war in Bosnia.
It doesn't help. It doesn't help to reject the reality of the situation, and how thoroughly things are f*cked. It doesn't help to draw parallels with places that became synonymous with death, destruction and other assorted horror. The fact is, that chaos is now your own.
The sooner you realize that Baghdad, Beirut or Sarajevo aren't god-forsaken, far away places where chaos is the natural, inherent state, and that there was a chain of events, actions and reactions that occurred in your own backyard and you weren't paying attention, the better.
I am sorry that it came to this point where you have to face the inevitable chaos and life never being the same. However, unless you own your own chaos, unless you understand why you are where you are, you will never be able to fix it. So no, it's not Baghdad. It's 2020 America.
