THE SPOILS OF WAR
OR
“Put the bologna in the cooler Bubba, it’ll go bad in this heat!”
Does anyone have the feeling that TV is running this war? Even the idea that a war should have a Title:
“Shock & Awe”………Was that one out of Fox or NBC? If it was up to one of the producers of the ‘Reality’ shows it would have been “Aw, Shucks!”. “ You gotta get the folks in the Midwest into it.” The only things that have inspired any feelings of awe and shock are the facts that have been slathered all over the tube. The Pentagon Puffers are strutting around and are referring to maps they only vaguely understand. Answers are being deferred when asked of these allegedly well informed generals and statesmen. “I am unable to answer that at this time. The information is classified.” “General Poopenstain, I didn’t want an answer. I already got that on “Oprah” and “The View”. I was asking if you agreed with Dr. Phil on the psychological effect of the colors in the camouflage uniforms?”
I am not a Hawk. I don’t think I’m a Dove either. Mockingbird seems to suit me though. When you hear that everybody is deeply involved with watching the war being fought in living color, (real blood isn’t that red. I think they might use poster paint for some of those shots.), ask what other choices are there? If one of the networks has an ‘Embedded Reporter’ they want you to know that their ‘Embed’ is much better and smarter and even looks better with sweat and mud plastered all over him, than the others. I look at the troops that are in the Iraqi desert. Horribly young looking, aren’t they? Could they have even found Iraq on a map before they got sent there? Wanna bet some of them wrote home; “Dear Mabel, I am here in Erack and it’s hotter than Jacksonville in Auguest. Bett ya din’t noe that?” Some of them are smiling and waving to the cameras and look like a bunch of kids sent to camp. And then they get in the tank. A few days later they lost the innocent look of delight. They look like prisoners now. Dirty, sweaty and very tired. A book title comes to mind, “The First Casualty of War is Truth.” Don’t remember who wrote it and it wasn’t about any current war. It is still one of the most honest statements ever made. Have we become a nation of spectators? Do we form our opinions based on what we see on TV? Is this the result of being put in front of the TV from the time we were able to sit upright? The first time my family got a TV I was about 8 years old. I loved Howdy Doody and Arthur Godfrey equally. In my subconscious, I knew that Howdy was a puppet and his show was a moving comic book. I thought the same thing about Arthur Godfrey. This was the movies that you didn’t have to leave the house for. If I wanted the truth, I asked my parents and if they didn’t know, they picked up a book for the answer. One of my aunts was the perfect TV person. She believed EVERYTHING she saw on it. This was the one commercials were written for. Never doubting what she saw and heard on the TV, she bought the products! There were moments of confusion when one soap opera sold one brand of detergent and the next one on sold a different one. No Problem, she bought them both!
Are we buying both? I have been subjected to seeing the statue of Saddam being pulled down about every 5 minutes. On CNN, every 2 minutes is the score. I don’t know him, we never met. I know his reputation isn’t good. I wonder if the Iraqis knew a lot about George Dubya? Do you think they may have gotten their information from a different source? Do they feel about our President the way we feel about their Dictator? How is that possible? How can you form an opinion about someone and somewhere that you never met and have never been? You get the information from CNN or NBC or CBS or some other bunch of initials. They always tell the truth, don’t they?
I hate to, but I am gonna go there. Remember the Vietnam Wa…… Uh…Well, The one where we went to advise them how to fight…. Yeah, That’s the ticket! I remember when they didn’t say things about who died. It was a ‘Body Count’. You could visualize a bunch of soldiers lined up with the guns and helmets and counting off, “ One,,Two,,,Three,,,Four…etc” That doesn’t sound too bad does it? Then we discovered that they were counting the bodies that were never going to move again. The phrase, “Necessary Force” came up. Sounds like if they wanted to arm wrestle, we would arm wrestle with a vengeance. One North Vietnamese with a gun and twenty unarmed civilians. Body count was usually 21. We did what we had to do and so did they. I hated that war. I had friends who were there. Most of them came home, not all. I hated the sin but not the sinner. This group is not quite old enough to be my Grandchildren. My oldest Grandson will be eighteen in two more years. Am I scared? HELL, YES!!!
We are not sure that we killed Saddam. We are going to look for him and his sons. Yes, he has sons and he probably loves them the same way we love ours. If we can’t find him living, we may have to look for his DNA. We always find our man. WHO?? Osama Bin Who??? Sure, he’s dead! I heard it on Oprah.
NOW, CAN WE GIVE PEACE A FIGHTING CHANCE?