The “War” in Iraq
August 4th, 2007 Greg CorwinSo call me a screaming liberal if you want to, but I would be remiss with myself if I didn’t say anything about this.
Back in 2003 I said it, this “war” will not go well. I remember waking up in the middle of the night because the trains nearby were roaring past and it reminded my of that scene in the movie Doctor Zhivago where the Bolshevik leader was on the locomotive as it pushed through the snow. The metaphor was so strong – War is coming, and there was nothing you can do to stop it. But this was not a conflict that the majority of Americans would ever see except on our TV’s. Nor did I think that it was necessary.
I have never been a fan of “W” and I have to say that he must be a smart guy, even though he sounds unintelligent when he speaks. No one gets to ge in a position of such power if they are a idiot. Remember James Stockdale? Incredibly intelligent, but in the 1992 debate he didn’t fare well against Gore – “Who am I? Why am I here?”
Well, as Colin Powell said “you own it.”
There have been several movies/documentaries on the war, the run up to it, the bad intelligence that was presented to us all. Despite what certain pundits and wonks say, for a long time I didn’t think that We The People were lied to or decieved into this “war”. There may be another explanation. There is a psychological concept call congnitive dissonnance that works on a subconscience level and acts a sort of good angel/bad devil on our shoulders. It helps us cope with good or bad descisions, kind of like self-justification. What also happens is that cognitive dissonance leans you towards certain truths that you may hold, like the literal meaning of the Book of Genesis, or when reading a report by the CIA up-playing the aspects that you agree with and downplay aspects you don’t agree with.
But now I am not so sure. Almost daily there are pols and Bush administration officials that are coming out of the D.C. mire to say how badly managed and coerced they were with respect to this “war”. A new movie is out called No End In Siight but since we live in Cincinnati – one of the most conservative, ostrich-like cities in the US – I will have to wait until it comes out on DVD to see it, unless I drive to Louisville or Indianapolis (how pathetic is that, those two cities are more progressive than Cincy). Here is the trailer:
Now, you may be wondering why I keep quoting the word “war”. It’s because of the loose use this administration and everyone else is using it. We, America, are not at war – real war. No articles of war have been drafted by Congress or signed by the President.We are not fighting a country. We aren’t even doing a very good job of policing the Iraqis in their civil war (and that is what it is).
So why is everyone saying we are at war? Branding? Yes, 9/11 was a terrbible thing. Unthinkable, unless you are a screenwriter in Hollywood (which is true – a studio was working on a movie in which the WTC was to be hit with an terrorist in an airplane). I think that the euphemisers ran out of ideas so they just decided to misuse it thinking no one would notice. I guess they were right.
When will this end? Not for a long time I suspect, not until Plugin Hybrids or fuel cell vehicles are affordable and outnumber SUV’s. You may think this is a contradition since we own an Outlook, which is technically an SUV. But in fact, our Outlook gets almost the same gas mileage as my Ion. The Ion gets about 26mpg and we are averaging 21mpg in the Outlook, which is incredible IMO. Shows that the car manufacturers can get better mileage if they want to, and consumers demand it.
More on petrologarchies, the neo-Ottoman Caliphate, green being the new Red, White & Blue later….