"It's very personal!" Insults to Injury.

Im-postures: "Nothing personal", that is. A statement we've all heard and said ourselves, and in all likelihood, in both correct and incorrect contexts, emphases, intents. As both prologues and as an epilogue to the main message, event. Which itself is quite personal. How can you take it otherwise, given the impact, effects, personal damage? While harmless, "all in fun" in a few cases, other times disastrous, catastrophic. On a smaller scale, happens every day, includes all of us as participants, observers. On a larger scale, unfolding daily with most of us as observers.

In-Discriminate Targeting: If it's truly indiscriminate, how can 'it' be targeting; isn't this a conflict in terms, in terms of conflicts? Exactly. Well, maybe, may be not. It's all a matter of intent, on reading their minds, whether the message and/or action was meant as a generic form of intimidation, "put down", or mass destruction, with a lot of collateral damage, or born out of malice, meant to destroy you personally, and anyone else that might get in the way, along the way (sounding familiar?) Some (very) recent quotes, reflecting various angles on this, depending on the stakeholders, include: "If they'll target hospitals, the most vulnerable, why would they not also target journalists, regardless of how they identify themselves...indiscriminate bombing...he wants to destroy each and every citizen prior to taking over this country..." Nearer to home, "when does a simple crime, aimed at taking or destructing property, become one born out of hate; where do we draw the line...what crime isn't out of malice for those affected, how can I not take it personally...?!" One more we heard the past few years..."The virus knows no bounds, is indiscriminate, while certain groups are more vulnerable, at risk". Very personal to those who lost loved ones.

Lines in the Sand: It's very personal. Where you draw the line, that is. The line that, once they step over it, you're committed to action: "They've gone too far this time, the point of no return, I've got no choice, he called me out!" May have started out with some seemingly harmless teasing, goading, based either on what they know about you or at least probes to find out your soft spots, your areas of hypersensitivity. Usually what occurs in the first round of a boxing match (Muhammad Ali was a brilliant psychologist!), as well as a debate (!). Again, sometimes "all in fun", mutual 'put-downs', learned early in life, progressing through adolescence (like the locker room scene from "Remember the Titans", where telling 'yo mama' jokes almost started a benches clearing brawl but then became a focus of team bonding), and "all the way to the top" -- as in "Patton" where he initially refused to have a victory toast with his Russian counterpart upon reaching Berlin, nearing the formal end of WWII, but conceded "All right, tell him I'll drink to that; one son of a bitch to another!". An unimaginable scene to what we have so far witnessed in Eastern Europe, regardless of the outcome. 

Assessing Blame and Injury: Such as "who started all this, the instigator?" Such as in minor skirmishes, 'dust-ups' around the hood and in your home (e.g. sib conflicts), or when the ref tries to discern, without the benefit of video, who poked who first, which eventuated in a "donnybrook" in hockey. On a larger scale, where the word "atrocity" has been heard many times already, in the correct context, we will eventually see who, how, and where the few principals will have to account for the "war crimes", which have already included the uprooting of millions, deaths of thousands (including those serving the respective militaries involved, as well as "noncombatants"), ruination of nation(s). More on this, here, later...