Had I seen the image of Obama, weeping over American gun deaths,
seven years ago, I know I would have been deeply moved. It would have
reinforced my view of him then as an empathetic, bright, and progressive
politician. And I did then, and do now, find America's violence -- all
of it, not just the small fraction of it seen in street killings -- an
appalling assault on the human spirit.
But the image comes seven years later,
following a period of Obama’s proving himself an utterly cold and
dry-eyed killer. Actually, apart from seven years packed with regular
killing and support of others doing killing in at least half a dozen
lands, he is reliably reported to have once said at a high-level
meeting, without tears or the least change in demeanor, "I'm pretty good
at killing."
-- John Chuckman, "Obama's Crocodile Tears" (COUNTERPUNCH).