Day 26: “Help them.”

Military setting, triage situation, loss of a limb, explosion, building collapse, field medicine, blood loss, loss of consciousness, execution, dehumanization, death of unnamed characters, firearm use, tobacco use [smoking], referenced suicide bombing, referenced fire

Wolf’s body moved before he processed what had happened. The explosion, it’s source - none of that mattered right now, not with his hands clamped around the stub of an arm while he tried to drag a man away from the debris.

“What are you doing?” His CO’s voice was something between amused confusion and frustrated annoyance. “Any left probably escaped out the back, go with Vern and…”

Wolf was tuning out his superior’s voice, consumed by the struggling gasps of the man below him. He couldn’t have been much older than Wolf - if anything, he was younger, soft face stained with soot and blood and tears. His eyes were screwed shut in pain, sobs wracking his body while Wolf secured a tourniquet just above his elbow.

“You hear me soldier? We - ”

There was a scream, somewhere in the rubble, young and feminine. She was begging - from somewhere half crushed under cement and support beams - asking for her daughter. Wolf couldn’t hear any reply to her agonized cries over the roar of blood in his ears and the crackle of fire. He looked to his CO, abject desperation clearly written on his face.

“What are you doing? Help them.” He nodded to the rubble, frustration and denial creeping into his expression. The young man under his hands had fallen unconscious, still bleeding profusely from his severed arm. Wolf flinched as a hand yanked at the collar of his vest, dragging him up and away from the injured man. “What - sir, they need medical attention - ”

His CO unceremoniously shot the young man in the head, blood spatter and brain matter leaking pink and red across the dusty concrete. Wolf froze, shocked to stillness. And still the woman’s cries persisted, begging for help, for her daughter to reply.

“I gave you an order, soldier.” The soldier’s voice was even, cold and quiet as he turned to Wolf. “Go to Vern and sweep the back of the building.”

“He could have survived - ”

“He could have pulled the pin on this grenade and killed both of you.” His CO snarled as he kicked the dead man’s chest, the grenade rattling from where it hung. “I don’t give orders for my health, boy, I give them for yours. Now go - ”

“They will die if we don’t help them!” Wolf gestured to the still smoldering rubble, the woman’s screams having dissolved into wailing sobs.

“They should have thought of that before shacking up with a suicide bomber. Now do as you are told.”

“They’re people, sir. I can’t just - ”

“They’re animals, Haas. The only help we can give them is to put them out of their misery.”

Wolf stared at him a few breaths before realizing his CO truly believed that. His voice came thin and hoarse, shaky with anger and disgust.

“I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Oh, you did. Give it a few months, you’ll understand.”

“I won’t.”

“You’re not the first bleeding heart medic I’ve had.” His CO’s eyes were harsh, appraising. “When we get back to base camp you’ll be properly disciplined. We have work to do. Now let’s go.”

The woman’s cries had silenced, only the sound of fires smoldering low and the shifting rubble under their feet. Wolf walked forward, nausea curdling in his gut as he listened to his CO light a cigarette behind him. The stench of tobacco couldn’t hide the smell of burning flesh.

[Before Wolf Downed]

(Part of my Freelancers: Swansong series)

Taglist: @stargeode

🇦🇫 🚨 💥SUICIDE BOMBER IN AFGHANISTAN STRIKES TALIBAN GOVERNMENT OFFICE IN NIMROZ PROVINCE💥

Afghan media is reporting an explosion resulting from a suicide bomber at a Taliban Governor's office in the Nimroz Province area in the southwest of Afghanistan, wounding three Taliban personnel.

In a statement issued to the Afghan International news agency, Taliban Ministry of Interior spokesperson, Abdul Matin Qane said that an attacker wearing explosives bypassed two security checkpoints as Governor Mohammed Qasim Khalid exited his offices for prayer.

Gul Mohammed Qadrat, a spokesperson for the local Police Command told local media that the suicide bomber detonated his explosives after being identified by the bodyguards of Governor Khalid, who opened fire on the attacker.

Residents in the city of Zaranj reported hearing explosions coming from the direction of the Governor's office on Sunday evening, and witnesses told local media they heard gunfire shortly after the explosion.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

TW: suicide bombing, gore

So something interesting and gruesome about suicide bombings is that if people aren’t trained to prevent this, when someone detonates a suicide bombing vest, the skin on their face often gets blown off in one piece and lands intact and recognisable on the ground or on buildings many metres away.

I think there’s definitely some whump potential here. Specifically for the people who find the face mask (along with the absolutely horrible devastation that a bombing’s inevitably going to cause)

1/30/23

Tyre Nichols was beaten by police in Memphis earlier this month and died a few days later from his injuries. A video was released depicting a three-minute attack and no medical help for twenty minutes afterward. Protests sprung up nationwide. The five police officers directly involved were fired and also detained on second-degree murder and other charges. The special unit the officers were part of, SCORPION, which was created to address Memphis' rising violent crimes, was disbanded. A sixth officer and two fire department employees were also relieved of their duties.

A suicide bomber hit a mosque in Pakistan, killing 59. That number keeps rising each time I check. Large portions of the mosque collapsed and emergency workers are scrambling to save people underneath. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Pakistan also had two transportation accidents, a bus falling into a ravine and a boat capsizing, killing at least 51.

A gunman shot at people leaving services at a synagogue in Jerusalem, killing 7. The gunman was killed. Several dozen people were arrested and Netanyahu wants to increase the gun permits for citizens to protect themselves in the future.

1) Vox, NYT, ABC 2) Al Jazeera 3) Al Jazeera 4) Haaretz, Reuters

Pakistan suicide bombing

View On WordPress

Abstract

Suicide is one of the greatest concerns in psychiatric practice, with considerable efforts devoted to prevention. The psychiatric view of suicide tends to equate it with depression or other forms of mental illness. However, some forms of suicide occur independently of mental illness and within a framework of cultural sanctioning such that they aren’t regarded as suicide at all. Despite persistent taboos against suicide, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the context of terminal illness is increasingly accepted as a way to preserve autonomy and dignity in the West. Seppuku, the ancient samurai ritual of suicide by self-stabbing, was long considered an honorable act of self-resolve such that despite the removal of cultural sanctioning, the rate of suicide in Japan remains high with suicide masquerading as seppuku still carried out both there and abroad. Suicide as an act of murder and terrorism is a practice currently popular with Islamic militants who regard it as martyrdom in the context of war. The absence of mental illness and the presence of cultural sanctioning do not mean that suicide should not be prevented. Culturally sanctioned suicide must be understood in terms of the specific motivations that underlie the choice of death over life. Efforts to prevent culturally sanctioned suicide must focus on alternatives to achieve similar ends and must ultimately be implemented within cultures to remove the sanctioning of self-destructive acts.

…

CONCLUSION

Assuming that one chooses to commit suicide, and that free will exists, the basic choice is between life and death. A psychiatric view of suicide tends to view this decision as biased by the presence of psychopathology that makes life seem worse than it is or can be. It is therefore the role of psychiatry to prevent suicide by treating mental illness. However, an alternative view is that not all suicides ought to be equated with mental illness. Rather, in some circumstances suicide may carry confer certain advantages such as autonomy, honor, or self-sacrifice that make choosing death more appealing than either life or the eventual “natural” death that awaits us all. Though the case for free will is debatable[95], these stereotypically human choices that favor an ideal or abstraction over the instinct for self-preservation would seem to represent the closest thing[96]. In contrast to suicide in the context of mental illness, these acts of ultimate self-determination are often granted an elevated status through cultural sanctioning. As a result, culturally sanctioned suicide is not typically called suicide at all, but instead becomes translated into different words such as euthanasia, seppuku, or istishhad with altogether different meanings.

For both cultural sanctioning and clinical evaluation, understanding the precise motivations behind plans for suicide is of paramount importance. Depression may very well lurk behind apparent cases of intended or completed culturally sanctioned suicide, but so too might other psychological conflicts that do not represent mental illness per se. Up to 47% of patients requesting euthanasia may be suffering from depression[97] and might reverse their decision if depression, pain, or other physical discomforts were properly identified and treated. Despondent souls, whether in Japan or abroad, might cloak their suicides in the ritual trappings of seppuku in the hopes of masking an act of desperate loneliness[69]. Resentful young immigrants who find themselves displaced and unaccepted on foreign soil might seek acceptance and meaning in traveling to the lands of their fictive kin to volunteer for suicide terrorism[98], whereas those who recruit them might be purposely exploiting a vulnerable population[99]. In this regard, although cultural sanctioning can serve as an incentive for suicide, that sanctioning could very well be lost upon closer examination for underlying psychopathology or when revered motives are absent.

Analyzing suicide in terms of mental illness or not, rationality or not, and even cultural sanctioning or not is shortsighted. Just as the presence of mental illness does not automatically render suicide irrational[1,25], the absence of mental illness does not mean that suicide is the “right” decision, and the presence of cultural sanctioning does not mean that clinicians and cultures at large should not try to prevent suicide. However, cultural sanctioning is moral sanctioning, such that efforts to prevent culturally sanctioned suicide may have to be grounded in utilitarian strategies rather than moral or libertarian arguments[1]. In other words, by definition, preventing culturally sanctioned suicide based on arguments that about what is “right” and “wrong” may be futile. Instead, preventing any form of suicide, whether sanctioned or not, must focus on elucidating its particular motivations and developing appealing alternatives. When mental illness is involved, the treatment of an underlying condition is an obvious alternative. But when the motivation for suicide is an abstract cultural ideal such as honor or self-efficacy, other ways to achieve those ideals within an existing cultural framework must be explored. Thinking along these lines, palliative care and palliative sedation might be acceptable options to attain death with dignity among the terminally ill. In Japan, public health efforts directed at destigmatizing mental illness, promoting workplace reform, and encouraging leisure activity could make a healthier national lifestyle more honorable than being a suicide nation. And developing more effective ways to achieve political change, economic vitalization, and pride within a surrounding culture could remove the appeal of suicide within the violent subculture of Islamic militancy. Ultimately though, such alternatives must emerge from within a sanctioning culture - for culturally sanctioned suicide to decline, it must eventually be desanctioned.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber struck in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least one police and wounding five others in an attempt to target a paramilitary convoy, an official said.

Authorities recovered the remains of a female bomber following the explosion in the southwestern city of Turbat, said Bashir Ahmed, a top administrative officer.

Jeeyand Baloch, spokesman for the separatist Baluch Liberation Army, later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ahmed said the bomber had targeted a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps but the main thrust of the blast hit a police vehicle. He said a Frontier Corps vehicle was slightly damaged and a female police officer was among the wounded.

Southwestern Baluchistan province has been the scene of a low level insurgency by Baluch separatists under the umbrella group of the Baluchistan Nationalist Army.

Beirut

1983年 - アメリカ大使館爆破事件: ベイルート大使館で起こった自爆テロ。

Is Suicide Bombing Allowed in Islam? - Dr Zakir Naik 

🇵🇰 💥 BREAKING: SUICIDE BLAST IN MASTUNG, PAKISTAN. AT LEAST 10 DEAD AND 40 INJURED

A suicide bomber shook both the ground and the population of the Balochistan Province district of Mastung, Pakistan Friday morning after setting off an explosion that killed at least 52 and injured another 70 people.

As many as 500 people were gathered outside a Mosque in the Balochistan Province of southwestern Pakistan when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd of people celebrating Mawlid an-Nabi, or the birth of the Profit Mohammed.

What should have been a celebratory day spent with family, friends and neighbors was instead marked by one of the deadliest attacks in months in the troubled Balochistan region.

Although no one has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, the suspicion of authorities is that the bombing was likely conducted by the Pakistan offshoot of Daesh, or the Islamic State. Allegedly IS was responsible for a smaller attack just days ago in the same region after one of its commanders was killed.

According to local authorities, at least one senior Police officer, Mohammed Nawaz, was killed in the blast, and children were among the wounded, with video emerging of young boys wrapped up in bloody bandages.

Another blast that also occured on Friday on the premises of a police station in Hangu, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan killed 5 and wounded another 7 according to Shah Raz Khan, a local police officer.

The bombings come just days after local authorities warned citizens to remain vigilant, concerned that Militants could target public crowds on Mawlid an-Nabi.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban, or TTP, which has waged a campaign of violence that normally targets government offices and security targets, denied responsibility for the attacks in Mastung and Hangu.

Pakistan's acting Interior Minister, Sarfraz Bugti called the bombing in Mastung a "heinous act" to target families on Mawlid an-Nabi, “The attack on innocent people who came to participate in the procession of Eid Milad-un-Nabi is a very heinous act."

US Ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome, issued a statement Friday saying, “The Pakistani people deserve to gather and celebrate their faith without the fear of terror attacks like the ones today in Balochistan and KP."

#source

#source2

How it feels

iconic terror fashion moments

hickey’s short girl in flares slay

fitzjames in the cuntress white coat with the waist cinched

tozer’s big grey depression sack era

every scene where they make matthew mcnulty wear like fifteen jumpers bc they wanted little to look like a big man but cast some scrawny fucker instead

silna’s permanently bloodstained furs

hickey cutting about the arctic in pyjamas a stolen coat and stolen shoes from two separate dead men

sir john’s leg in the stocking and heeled shoe

hickey’s stovepipe hat

irving in the shibari harness angel wings and skirt pissed out of his mind singing his gay little song for the men

collins big jumper

THE ENTIRE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT IN MATCHING CLOWN COSTUMES COMPLETE WITH MAKEUP

Rumors are going around on twitter and weibo that starember might have left the tgcf manhua team omg.. they're unfounded right now but can we get a prayer circle going for hoping that it's true!! 🙏🙏🙏I'm so tired of their consistent racism and orientalism being passed around in the manhua space, people have been raising the alarm on it for literal years now

Playing my Gale origin bloodweave playthrough, as you do, and I just met Elminster. Feeling kinda robbed that I didn't get any of those words of encouragement from the party that they give if you're not playing as Gale. What, you guys only wanna support him behind his back? Can't tell him to his face that he's awesome?

Except for Wyll. Wyll, my man, out here reminding a sad wizard that he's important and that he's loved.

Astarion, listen up you fuck. Your stonks are dropping.