The Liberal Media ignores the GOOD things that came out of the Iraq War

[SemiCharmedQuark]

I don't know how to respond to someone that said this to me...mainly because...what good things? He mentioined Kurdistan, but my understanding is that Kurdistan was relatively stable since the nineties?

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. We'll probably steer clear of "pre-emptive" wars for a long time after

getting burned by this one.

[LeftCoast]

2. Yeah, well everyone thought we'd learn the 'lessons of Vietnam' too...

I hope you're right though. :)

[RoyGBiv]

3. I know how ...

I was sitting in the airport in OKC recently when a couple of soldiers off to (re)deployment sat down near me. A couple of other people struck up conversation with them, doing the whole "we support the troops" thing, and they were gracious, but obviously not entirely impressed except by the guy with the Vietnam ribbon on his hat. That guy kept their attention and said a lot of things they needed and seemed to want to hear, but this other guy, a gung-ho idiot who had quite clearly never served a day just as obviously got on their nerves.

At some point that "other guy" said something along the lines of "The problem is that the damn media never shows the good ..." The soldiers froze -- it was at this point I realized or at least suspected they'd been deployed before, something I later confirmed -- and one turned to face the guy. He asked, "The good? What 'good' would that be?" The guy of course had no answer, but he rambled on just the same. The Vietnam vet was obviously amused in a pissed-off way about this exchange. Eventually one of the soldiers just got up and walked away while the remaining one sat there and tried to engage the guy with the pipe-dream about all the good going on in Iraq. He eventually just said, "You have no idea what is happening over there, and I think you should shut up" then walked away to join his comrade at the magazine rack.

Of course "the guy" never got it, but what happened was an appropriate response and the only one that can really be given ... truth mixed with contempt of those who refuse to see it. You can't change people who refuse to see the truth or create their own as a substitute for reality. Don't try. It's pointless. You're better off at a magazine rack.

[progdonkey]

6. well, those soldiers were obviously liberal plants...

They joined for the express purpose of being able to screw with patriotic Americans like your guy and try to make him waver in his patriotic zeal. No matter how awesome it was going over there, they already had their stories to show others how evil Dear Leader is and how stupid an idea the war was. Liberals are sneaky like that. :silly:

Seriously, though, that's unfortunately not that far from the truth. Case in point: at a conservative website a few weeks ago regarding some stupid counter-anti-war rally, they had pictures from their side, one of which was a soldier who was marching in the anti-war parade. The caption for the photo referred to him as a "traitor." There were a few others as well, all of which referred to any soldiers marching in the parade in the same manner.

"We support you, as long as you shut up and die to make us feel big."

[RoyGBiv]

7. Oh, obviously ...

You could see it in their battle-scarred faces. :crazy:

Yeah ... the "we support you as long as you shut up and die" thing is just about as close to the truth as one can get. My family members who are all big war supporters have never served. The one who has -- retired after 25 years in and served in Vietnam -- thinks this whole venture is one big cluster fuck with no other purpose than to get young people killed for old people's profit.

[melody]

4. "Liberal media", my ass

Your friend ought to know that the media covers for everything else the fetid Shrub
does ... my guess is it's one hell of a lot worse than we've been told.

Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqs, thousands of dead US and UK soldiers, heaven knows
how many dead journalists and other non-combatants, a civil war that may well spread to
other countries igniting a situation that could bring about a nuclear exchange without
too much provocation, never mind the damage BushCo has done to our nation and its standing.
What good could POSSIBLY come from it that would even slightly cancel out all the bad?

[progdonkey]

5. he does know that "Kurdistan" includes a large portion of Turkey, right?

and that the Turks are more uneasy than ever that the Kurds will want to take that area "back"? (I'm trying to be as neutral as possible in my phrasing. :-) )

I mean, of course it's good for the Kurds that Saddam's gone (late 80s gassing, anyone?), but the whole Kurdistan issue is just one example of the worsening regional instability caused by this idiotic occupation.

There is nothing good coming from the Iraq War. Hell, it's such a clusterfuck that having Saddam back in power (were he alive) would be an improvement!