I'm sure this has been linked to already on dKos, but I want to talk about a specific aspect of this story that doesn't ever seem to get enough light shown on it, in my opinion.
First the link...before you click on it let me warn you, this is a story about a porn website that offers soldiers free memberships for sending pictures of their daily lives from Afghanistan and Iraq. Of course, eventually many of those pictures were of gory, disgusting visions that will haunt anyone who sees them. This link is only to the story ABOUT the website itself. If you follow the link to the actual porn site, your boss will probably be knocking on your cubicle wall soon. But note, even in this linked article about it, there are a couple graphic pics so be warned.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2005-09-21/news/news.html
My particular gripe I will expound on here, among the many I have with this whole situation, has to do with the following quote from one of the soldier submitters of gory pics (disclosure: I am former military and care for and respect the sacrifice our soldiers make but am also aware, from an insider's perspective, how emotionally and mentally immature many of these guys are):
"What you interpret [as] maliciousness and bravado may be how [soldiers] react to situations where they almost die or they just saw their buddy get killed," he continued. "I will not defend the people who have posted pictures of dead, innocent Iraqis, but in my opinion, the insurgents/terrorists that try to kill us and end up getting killed in return have absolutely no rights once they are dead.
"Obviously these postings do not help our public image at all," the soldier concluded. "However, I believe the US has been far too concerned about our public image as of late. ... We need to take a much harsher stand against these Islamic fundamentalists and stop giving them the royal American treatment. They need to be taught a lesson, a lesson hard enough that they will think twice before waging a jihad against us."
Ok I just have to say it in the most obvious way first "bullshit, Bullshit, BULLLLLLSHIT!"
Alright, with that done let me be a little less concise... I have repeatedly heard and read this very same argument from right wing supporters and find the intellectual disconnect to be extremely disconcerting. How is it that seemingly rational people can't see that "teaching a lesson" to someone is meaningless to people who are willing to die for their cause? Do they really believe a suicide bomber gives a shit what you do to his body after he has blown 200 of your buddies up in a car bomb? (yes I understand certain religious concerns about the body even in death but seriously...) Do you think the bombers are gonna turn gun-shy because you threaten to blow up their village? They are either fanatical or desperate - they don't give a shit about any of that.
And I'm not just talking about this particular soldier or even just a small subset who "don't speak for the great majority", I am talking about almost every single soldier I still keep in touch with (numbers around 150) as well as right wing bloggers, right wing talk hosts, and most importantly, right wing elected officials and political operatives. I have heard repeated variations on this ridiculous theme from all of these sources and it boggles my mind. Whats even worse about the whole thing is that they either know they are full of shit or really are so truly ignorant that they truly believe what they are saying, because it is always said in hushed tones, to imply this sense that "this is the REAL reason" why we are in Iraq and why no one cares about the torture and such.
When such a wide swath of the public agrees and projects this nonsense, it begs the question, where are they getting this from? It takes someone in a pretty highly visible and powerful position to project this sort of counter-intuitive thought out to the masses and get them to buy in. I honestly can't except that humans in general are such bad creatures by nature, that they can't see the fundamental right and wrong of actions like this and not see through the nonsensical reasoning employed to justify it. The only way people go against their better judgement is through leadership convincing them of the "truth" of misguided concepts like this.
Now I want to be clear that this is NOT a direct attack on Bush himself because I have come to believe that Bush is simply so out of touch and incompetent, he couldn't find his way out of bed without help. I think this is a failure not only in leadership in the general sense, but a failure in intellectual leadership from all those out there who know better. Why is Juan Cole such a famous professor when he is from a fairly average midwest university and is simply telling the truth? Because he is the only one doing it!
We can go on and on about this pathetic fight against the media from both sides when really the media just want to keep their jobs and "sell papers" so to speak. The more we degrade them directly and cackle at them for not doing their jobs, the more we trivialize the media and their role as an important adjunct to our political system. When the media becomes trivialized, the reporters on the ground start reeling their necks in and refuse to take chances anymore so why do we blame them for reporting nonsense stories about the latest "lost blonde chick"? Not that I think they are without blame but seriously, we do way too much pointing fingers and not solving the problem. The intelligent people out there, the professors, the think tank experts, the specific field experts, the scientists, librarians, etc... and finally, the average knowledgeable Kossack, all have the responsibility to tell the true story, loud and proud, at every opportunity.
I am sick to death of the deafening silence from all those people out there who know better. Stop waiting for someone else to jump into the water before you will go in yourself. Think of it this way, the country is your baby drowning in that pool while everyone stands around the outside watching. Are you gonna wait for someone else to jump in first before you dive in after your own baby?
And let's be real clear here, in a situation where you have countless thousands of noisy, demonstrative, intellectually challenged folks in stark contrast to thousands of silent informed people who know better, it is the absolute responsibility of the informed to educate the uninformed, lest they end up with the world of stupid we are headed towards today.
Seriously, we must stop waiting for others to lead us since we are the only people capable of leading. Find some way in your community or local or state governement to get involved. Find out who your local candidates are, pick one or two and get involved in their campaigns. Leave your blinking cursors behind for awhile and start finding large groups of people to talk to about the FACTS you know that are in opposition to the BS they get from FOX or other tainted sources. Put a hundred bumper stickers on your car if nothing else and let people know how you feel. I live in a blue state but I still see more W stickers than I do Kerry or anti-bush stickers. Fine you don't like or respect Kerry anymore then put an anti bush sticker on. You might be surprised by the reaction you get. I have people that come up to me all the time when they find out what my politics are and either say they agree or ask questions and are impressed by the depth of my knowledge (hat tip to dKos on alot of that) and even some Repubs who leave with food for thought and admit it. Go to your local universities and find the organizations that are shaping the minds of young people today and get involved there. Find the educated, articulate professors and scientists and push them into the spotlight. Whatever, just do SOMETHING!
Let me repeat - it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY as the informed, to make sure the rest of our UNITED States citizens understand the truths that they simply are not hearing. We need to raise the volume of our truth telling and blow the roof off of this house of cards Bushco has built.
Do not let ignorance rule our lives and shape our children's futures...we simply must do better...