War? What war?

[sir archely]

Okay, so does anyone remember that time not so long ago when the united states had that conflict with Iraq? It's amazing to me that it used to be you couldn't turn on a tv, read a paper's front page, turn on the radio, or really do anything without bumping into something about this. Whether for or against, everyone had an opinion, and everyone was making that opinion known. TV stations that had no connection to it were picking up war news because it brought higher ratings.

Where did it go? Does anyone know what's going on over there now? Did we ever find those pesky 'WMD'?

Maybe it's just me, maybe i'm the one that's out of touch with this. I'm sure if i searched enough, i could find news on this. The really scary part to me is that this conflict is, for the most part, out of the eye of the general public. Was it right? Was it wrong? Justified? Horrible? It doesn't even matter any longer, we've just let it slip away, and despite not being resolved at all, the discussions surrounding it have simply vanished.

Anyway, does anyone else think there is something wrong with this? Am i way off base here?

[Anita Blake]

no, you're absolutely right. the "war" sort of got less interesting after they decided that they think they killed Saddam Hussein. OH, we toppled his statue, everything's OK now. HE might still be alive with billions of dollars at his disposal, but that's ok, because we think we killed him, and if you close your eyes, the monster can't see you.

Weapons of Mass Destruction have not yet been found. UN weapons inspectors are not allowed back into iraq to continue their very efficient search for them. The US military is looking for WMD, probably figuring out how to invent some really quick, at least some that are good enough to pass under the media scrutiny.

it's so sad and unfortunate that the media coverage on the war was so high, and has now dropped off to virtually none, now that there's no explosions to be seen. People are thinking to themselves, well, it's over, and it didn't last that long, so it must have been the right thing to do, so let's not worry about it any further. So many people who were vehemently anti-war were hit very hard by that whole load of crapo about 'we have to support the soldiers', in other words "it's happening now, so shut the f*@k up." and now that it's over, people are more than happy to ignore the fact that thousands of innocent civilians have died, and that the military is still maintaining a strong presence in iraq, and that the infrastructure of iraq is crumbling and the people are not 'back to their normal lives'. It's kind of ingenius, because the whole 'search for WMD' is holding us liberal tree-hugging-war-protesters at bay, because it leaves an open-ended "if we find something, then the war was justified" kind of accusation hanging. How long will it take to find these elusive WMD? a year? 2 years? 10? Probably until the Bush admin buys another election.

nope arch, you are not wrong, not off base at all. this situation stinks and it's not good.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

~fully expect to be torn apart~

Yeah, its all fallen pretty far off the media radar. My explanation for this? Well, most of the obvious drama is gone and the 'news' is no longer made to be informative, but ‘entertaining’.

As for the war itself? Well, that’s a little trickier. I believe in peace, I want peace. I hate war...even more, I hate the fact that I see war as still being necessary in this time even more. Was it justified and why? I think you could ask a hundred different people and get something approaching a hundred different answers. To me, it was justified. Even most of the truly anti-war people would agree that Hussein was a monster that the world will not miss. But the one thing the really justifies it for me was there were X Iraqi's celebrating our forces rolling into Baghdad. And yes, I get that some of that was spun to our favor and things like that. But not all of it, I can't believe that.

Anyway, it sucks and saddens me that it happened, but I do think it was somewhat better than doing nothing.

~shrugs~

-Malcor "Grudging support" Sylverwood

[Corvus Corax]

I don't realy want to mix in this, but I just could'nt resist, sorry.


But the one thing the really justifies it for me was there were X Iraqi's celebrating our forces rolling into Baghdad

In the countries that were invaded by the Germans at the begining of WWII there were celebations as well, when the Germans rolled through towns. Not by all people, of course, far from it, but German propaganda had a fieldday showing this in their movies.

The will of the people is always a mixture and the mixture should be determined through elections, not through some people on the street.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

"And yes, I get that some of that was spun to our favor and things like that." :p

-Malcor "Made that point" Sylverwood

[dark fuschia]

X Iraqis celebrating? You're kidding right? In a city of millions we saw about 200 people. I am quite certain the drama is not over, in the past few weeks more Americans have been killed than there were before the official war was over (we don't get stats of Iraqis) I am almost certain that the media is not focused there to distract us from atrocities that are underway even now. The whole thing with the SARS virus was just a way to distract the world, anyone notice how the media grasped onto SARS like that? It was done for a reason.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

~blinks at the SARS comments~

If our government absolutely controlled the press, I might buy that. But, sadly enough, atrocities sell papers. So, why wouldn't they want to report things like that?

Anyway...so, 200 celebrating Iraqis isn't an acceptable argument, but guerilla attacks by a few individuals is? I'm not sure I follow.

-Malcor "Why did I start in on this?" Sylverwood

[dark fuschia]

~blinks at the SARS comments~

If our government absolutely controlled the press, I might buy that. But, sadly enough, atrocities sell papers. So, why wouldn't they want to report things like that?

Anyway...so, 200 celebrating Iraqis isn't an acceptable argument, but guerilla attacks by a few individuals is? I'm not sure I follow.

-Malcor "Why did I start in on this?" Sylverwood

a few individuals? You seem to forget that an entire army fought against America and that probably more than 10 000 were killed, people are still fighting because they know what America will do (and is doing) to their country. This isn't attacks by a few individuals, the whole country is under a huge ammount of injusice and they are fighting back the best way they can and being labelled Saddam suppoters, nothing disgusts me more than this. You might put more store by a few slathering hate filled rioters but I certainly do not.

Also although the media doesn't entirely control the government they are strongly linked, and people control the media by what they want to see and believe, and people want to see and believe that the war was right, good and just and so the medias going to be giving them that. But the truth of war is that you can't give people that indefinately, so it's better to distract them alltogether after the initial glow of patriotism has worn off.

Now don't answer this for another 4 hours or I'll be tempted to put off my work for even longer! :p

[Malcor Sylverwood]

HAH! I'm replying!

heh, anyway...I'm done. I don't have stats and facts to throw about, so at this point its just arguing opinion...and I don't have the tenacity to stick with soulstealer. ;)

On a serious note, war IS hell. I don't have to see anything more than my father, who was in Viet Nam, flinching at this time of year because of all the fireworks going off all day and into the night to know that fact. I wish it didn't have to happen. But life sucks and the world is unfair. ~shrugs~

-Malcor "Retreat" Syvlerwood

[sir archely]

Yeah, its all fallen pretty far off the media radar. My explanation for this? Well, most of the obvious drama is gone and the 'news' is no longer made to be informative, but ‘entertaining’.


That's really really sad. True, and sad.

I guess what i was really trying to address was not that it's either justified or not justified. It seems like it doesn't even need it anymore. Nobody even remembers it enough to say one way or the other. That's the problem, in my eyes. Just that there's apparently a statute of limitations on war, and it's already up. It doesn't matter whether it was wrong or right, it's over, so why worry about it? or even give a thought to it?

[Corvus Corax]

*watches the irony of this thread disolving into oblivion*

Wounds may heal by time, but they aren't forgotten while they are being made.