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Tonight I caught a Right Wing trucker talk show. Just a week ago, this guy...who pops up all over my radio dial...was slamming Kerry and kissing *'s behind, calling him a great war leader...yada yada. Typical hate radio drivel.
Tonight, I pop around and this guy is going on about the torture pictures and goes into a rant that I swear could have originated here. How terrible it was that Americans could do that and the people who were involved should be court martialed or neutered or whatever wingnuts want to do to people they don't like these days.
Before I could reset my jaw, he took calls. Even the deepest kool-aid drinkers had troubles swallowing this one. There were a was one who tried to say that maybe these were sexual deviates and got off on this sort of stuff, and they couldn't be too many in the military. Another was a bit more honest...saying the only reason this got such a big play was the military got caught. Both went on to rant about how war is hell and people do strange things this should be filed under "shit happens". That was what I was expecting to hear.
Then to my surprise, a man who identified himself as a driver who had just returned from a year in Afghanistan attempted to explain how dehumanizing the situation he faced. He went on about how he wen through extensive training that focused on hating Arabs...or even people who didn't "seem American", and not consider them anything more than "a piece of meat". He said he saw people in the military taking pictures of their "conquests" (he didn't need to detail) and how it must be even worse in Iraq. It's inhuman, and that's what you're taught the enemy is...and when you get into a strange land, everyone who doesn't speak English or wears the same clothes as you do is the enemy.
The host went silent. Then went into a jag about how this isn't as bad as it was in Vietnam...My Lai (how do we or he know?) and that this incident will be thoroughly investigated. But he did go on to say, that he thought this might also be a good time to look at what we're really doing in these countries and how this is making this country safer. From Wingnutland, that's quite a confession. Is there some reason still left in GOOPland?
No matter, this regime will "stay the course" and dig us in deeper, just to prove they are never wrong and the more we bleed, the more we're succeding. What's so ironic is while they spend like drunken sailors, they still undercut the military...stretching resources to their thinest since Vietnam (some will say worse) and then sending then the games of extended leaves, poor equipment, cuts in benefits and so on. For a while I've felt the military was swinging away from this regime. Will this be the episode that finally breaks 'em?
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