Living In America - Cognitive Dissonance

[bobquasit]

So I go to the supermarket, and as I'm checking out I see that they're selling red, white & blue-colored magnetic car ribbons with "Proud to be an AMERICAN" emblazoned on them.

Then I go and read in the NYT today that some American soldiers in Iraq are getting their kicks by smashing empty Coke bottles over the heads of random Iraqi civilians (they call them "hadjis"), kicking and beating Iraqi children, and shooting down unarmed prisoners in cold blood:

Detainees who had been demonstrating over a variety of grievances began throwing rocks at the guards. As the disturbance grew, the Army authorized lethal force. Four detainees were shot to death.

Mr. Delgado confronted a sergeant who, he said, had fired on the detainees. "I asked him," said Mr. Delgado, "if he was proud that he had shot unarmed men behind barbed wire for throwing stones. He didn't get mad at all. He was, like, 'Well, I saw them bloody my buddy's nose, so I knelt down. I said a prayer. I stood up, and I shot them down.' "

But I'm sure it's just a few bad apples...and of course, it's quite controversial to suggest that mere foreigners shouldn't have been shot. After all, they were throwing stones!

Oh well. I guess I won't be buying a patriotic ribbon today.

Comments

[klyfix.livejournal.com]

Well, we've got Army soldiers doing stuff they're not necessarily qualified to do. Stuff like this is happening because this whole operation was a half-assed set-up from the beginning; the White House and the Pentagon went in thinking that they'd be greeted by Iraqis throwing flowers and they'd just set up Mr. Chalibis as President and pull out most of the troops in a few months, probably figuring they'd then take out Syria or Iran using this as a model.

Instead we have a farce that is stretching thin our forces and drives down recruitment in both the regular Army and the Guard and reserve. My impression is that lots of brutality and bad stuff is going on and not being reported in American media.

The big worry, well, with the polls going against the Prez and the GOP one might expect another war to bump up ratings, using something (North Korean or Iranian nukes?) as an excuse for an attack. But we took out the "easy" country already; an attack on North Korea or Iran or even Syria is going to be more difficult, particularly with the limited free resources we have now.

One can hope that our leaders aren't that stupid or so devoted to personal power above all else that they won't risk a potential disaster. But then again, they already did...

Argh!

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

That's really all I can say.

Kiralee