tdog blog.

the world at war.

Much like our last war, there is a surprising lack of change here at home. I, of course, wasn't alive for WWII, but our cultural understanding of what homelife was like during a major war is so different from our actual exeriences with war. It seems like such an event should really touch our lives in a much more profound way, changing the way we do our jobs and interact day to day. Alas, it doesn't work that way.

I'm always surprised to feel the simultaneous detachment and support I feel for my own country. It's hard to reconcile.

I certainly don't feel this way.

This morning i couldn't get enough of this song: "Get up, get , get, get down, 911 is a joke in yo town."

I don't know why.

I think its strange that you sit and watch the war on TV, but seem detached from the violence - like you are watching a movie or something. I sit there and think, there are people dying in that picture - they don’t get up and go for coffee when someone yells cut. Somehow it seems like the media has forgotten that. The media and the military make it seem like a “surgical strike” only kills the 3 people they were gunning for. Earlier today a “surgical strike” killed some Jordanians at a fueling stop in Iraq.

Yeah, our generation, or maybe anyone who happens to be alive right now in the US, seem weirdly desensitized to war and what it means. There are any number of reasons for that — and I’m sure there will be a glut of analyses published in the near future about it. Part of it, for sure, must be the fact that as a society we’ve become desensitized to lots of things that in the past would have certainly elicited a much more emotional reaction. And that’s largely to do with our omnipresent media — especially TV and the web. With those two things, we pretty much access, or exposure (willing or otherwise), to almost any kind of horror we can imagine: death, famine, murder, war, assault. Even if we don’t intentionally seek out these images and scenes, they’re around, all the time, in surprisingly graphic detail. It’s only natural it doesn’t shake us like it seems like it should — we’ve built up calluses against whatever discomfort it once caused.

But, really, I think the bigger issue is a more moral one. While it seems the majority of the country, according to polls, is in favor of unseating Saddam (if not actually “going to war”), I get the sense it’s because he’s a megalomaniacal wacko — people think he’s bad. If you believe that people should be free, it’s hard to argue that he should be in power, especially if he actually has any of the advanced weaponry the administration claims he does. And, really, who else is going to take him out besides us? But the fact remains that no one is really sure that he does have these weapons. And no one seems real sure that attacking Iraq is the way to do it. I don’t think we’re being apathetic — we’re just wondering, “Why, exactly, are we bombing Iraq?” The motivations for military action are unclear, and often suspicious. In WWII, and to a lesser extent in the first Persian Gulf war, there was a reason to fight — Nazis were slaughtering millions, Saddam was cruelly seizing land that he had no right to.

Personally, I’m hoping this conflict ends quickly, either through the capture or assassination of Saddam. A quick war is easier to get past than a long, drawn-out bloodbath. There are many people and countries in the world who don’t like the US much, and I’d rather we get in, do our business, and get out, rather than let people get even more sick of us being around.

I had to go to a meeting in the middle of writing this post, so I kinda lost my flow. So I’ll end it here.

I’m just wondering why almost everything on this page (all text from “way.” in tim’s post on down) is a link to a website for people who want to mail the Statue of Liberty back to the French. Did you screw up your post, Tim?

yes. a simple misplaced double-quote mark. safari seemd to deal with it elegantly and i suppose IE did not.

I went to a peace rally today [photos] and though (in general) I’m not a fan of mass mentality, it remove some of my emotional numbness, after hours of reading news sites and watching CNN headline news.