Moving On

The sheer numbers inherent in great volumes of

victims stun the mind and stunt the imagination

depriving it of emotional connection to the mass death 

of a half-million men, women and children deliberately 

caused by a tyrant reacting to his population but not 

of his ideology and religious sect agitating for freedom 

from the restraints of the regime. The relentless violence 

of a president of a nation against those of his people 

victimized by neglect and inequality who orders his 

air force to drop chemical and barrel bombs to still

their complaints captures the aghast notice of the world 

for the horrors he commits and the refugees that result

absorbed by neighbours and the international community 

even as his ongoing assaults become a bore and notice 

slips elsewhere. That same world community is never 

bored with the spectacle that presents when groups

of terrorists attack the Jewish state of Israel; a gasp 

of apprehension as Israel's defences strike back and 

the media fills with stunning condemnation not of a 

nation that must time and again defend itself against 

violent attacks but a nation that defends itself and exacts 

a price from the tireless attackers shielding themselves

behind their own populace, drawing return fire from 

the attacked geared to orchestrating the deaths of 

non-combatants whose tragedy terrorists triumphantly

trumpet as proof of victims of Jewish aggression.