So here we are again. Another day, another pile of bodies, and another tough guy talking about his big boats. The news came out today that the crackdown in Iran has killed at least 5,002 people. That is a specific number. Five thousand and two. Not five thousand. Not “a lot.” But 5,002. That means someone is counting. Someone is out there looking at the mess on the streets and ticking boxes on a clipboard. It is a grim job. But that is the world we live in now. We count the dead like we count runs in a baseball game.

Let’s look at the folks running the show in Iran. They are scared. You don’t kill 5,000 of your own citizens because you are strong. You do it because you are terrified. A strong leader doesn’t need to shoot people in the street to get them to listen. A strong leader just leads. But these guys? They are weak. They are pathetic. They have guns and tanks and jails, but they are shaking in their boots because regular people are tired of their nonsense. So, they open fire. They crush protests. They act like the big bad wolf, but really they are just cowards with weapons. It is the same story we have seen a hundred times in history. The guys at the top get scared of losing their comfy chairs, so they start breaking bones. It is boring. It is predictable. It is evil.

Then we have the American response. Oh, just wait until you hear this. Donald Trump says an “armada” is approaching. An armada. Who uses that word anymore? It sounds like something from a pirate movie. It sounds like he thinks he is the King of Spain in the 1500s. He wants us to picture hundreds of ships with flags waving and cannons ready. It is all theater. It is a show. He wants to look like the hero riding in to save the day. But let’s be real for a second. What are those boats going to do? Are they going to bring those 5,002 people back to life? No.

Those ships are just big, floating pieces of metal. They are there to scare the guys in Iran. But the guys in Iran are already busy killing their own people. They don’t have time to look at the ocean. They are too busy reloading. The “armada” is just a way for the US to puff out its chest and say, “Look how big and strong we are.” It is measuring contests on a global scale. One side measures power in how many protesters they can bury. The other side measures power in how much tonnage they can float in the water. Neither side actually cares about the guy who got shot in the head for holding a sign.

Think about the 5,002 people. They didn’t die for an armada. They didn’t die for geopolitics. They died because they wanted to live a normal life. They wanted to breathe without a boot on their neck. And now they are just a statistic. A number in a headline. “5,002.” The extra two really get to me. It reminds you that these are individuals. Two extra lives tacked onto a nice round number. Two people who probably had breakfast that morning not knowing they would end up as a data point in a war of words between old men.

The world watches this happen and does nothing. We read the article. We see the number. We shake our heads. Then we go back to eating our lunch. The leaders of the world hold meetings. They wear nice suits. They release statements saying they are “deeply concerned.” Being concerned is easy. It costs nothing. You can be concerned while you sip expensive wine. Meanwhile, the count goes up. 5,003. 5,004. The armada sails closer, or maybe it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter. The ships are just props. The dead bodies are just props. Everyone is just a prop in a play written by idiots.

This is the reality of our dumb species. We let the worst people rise to the top. We let the cruelest men run countries. We let the loudest men run the opposition. And the normal people? The ones who just want to go to work and come home to their families? They get crushed in the middle. They get turned into numbers. 5,002. That is a lot of empty chairs at dinner tables. But sure, let’s talk about the armada. Let’s talk about the boats. That is much more exciting than facing the ugly truth that we have built a world where killing 5,000 people is just another Tuesday news cycle.