The Iraq war as a spectator sport

[Speck Tater]

I've notice that among the joe-sixpack crowd there is a definite sporting event mentality about this war. Bush is the coach who could do no wrong and our team was scoring points at every turn.

To these people this was never a real war with real lives at stake, it was just a bigger, badder version of Monday night football. Pulling down a statue, pulling down the goal posts, it was all the same kind of exciting broadcast spectacle to them.

But when their kids, and their neighbors kids start dying suddenly it's not a game any more. When the coach is caught in one scandal after another they begin to lose interest in the game. What will happen after Kerry wins is that this whole crowd of boisterous spectators will not continue to be vocal supporters of the coach. They won't respond with more right-wing rhetoric. They will simply drift away. They will again become politically apathetic and will simply go back to Monday night football.

When that happens, the support for coach Bush will evaporate over night and some semblance of politcal normality will return the country as the masses fall back asleep and pretend the whole thing never happened.

After all, once Hitler fell the masses in Germany didn't rise up in support of his failed policies. Instead, they very quickly distanced themselves from what had happened, and told temselves and each other that they had been against Hitler all along. After Kerry wins you will be very hard pressed to find anyone who will openly admit to ever having supported Bush.

[cosmicdot]

1. American Media = the modern day Roman Forum

Lethal injection ... tonight, on Faux ... (ad, of course, with obligatory, swishes and swooshes of color and loud sound)


my cynicism aside ... you're right ... that's what helped to end the Vietnam War ... more and more neighborhoods fell victim to the tragedy ...

so many can read a book ... and, not get it ... see the movie ... and, not get it ... sometimes it takes something to actually knock on their door for them to finally 'get it' ...

... how many people can tell of incidences in their life ... and, other people 'just don't get it' ... don't want to hear it .... yeah yeah, sure, whatever ... must be you ... I've never seen it ...

... but, if and when, the same finally happens to them ... they're in shock and disbelief ...

... by the time these folks 'come around' ... it can be too late ...

[cliss]

2. Nice editorial, Fiz.

Yes, you've had me thinking along the same lines, lately. For a while, I was wondering if we'd gone back to the Colosseum in Rome about 2,000 years ago.

But when the photos finally hit, I think it took a definite turn. Suddenly, Joe Sixpack squeezes his beer can. His eyes narrow. He can't believe what he just saw on the TV. And then the blood-chilling revelation that "there's worse to come". Now, suddenly Joe is coherent.

This has stopped being fun. When the ugly fact sinks in that his country is engaged in torture, his brain starts functioning normally.

And this is what's going to sink them in Washington. They really did cross the line, this time.