Masters Of War
It doesn't matter whether you're selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or 'How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.' That doesn't make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are - just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it's not a conversation anymore; it's a pitch. And you're not a human being; you're a marketing rep.
Roger Rueff
from The Big Kahuna (1999)
11/14/2005
On Friday, Veterans Day, I received an e-mail from a friend that I thought was quite good. Although it is not the actual letter, below this text I have reproduced it as best I could, verbatim. Please take a moment to look at it, I feel it is very important.
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Pictures From Iraq That Are Too Shocking & Graphic for the Mainstream Media
Photos that will never make the news.....
Please pass the pictures on. Sometimes in our everyday lives we tend to forget what's going on elsewhere in the world and that the brave men and women of the service are just like you and me. They have family and friends back home who love them very much and are praying for their safe return.PLEASE KEEP THIS GOING EVEN IF YOU HAVE PASSED IT ON BEFORE
When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops (land, air, and sea) in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, and around the world. There is nothing attached.. . This can be very powerful. . Just send this to people in your address book. Do not stop the wheel, please.
Of all the gifts you could give the US Military, Prayer is the very best one.
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This is a very heart touching e-mail and I agree with pretty much everything in it. Yes, these men and woman serving overseas are just like you and me. Yes, in our everyday tranquil lives, we sometimes forget that many good people are in a radically different situation halfway around the globe, not enjoying the materialistic bliss we, at home, are enjoying. And, yes, I believe the power of pray, or at least any positive mental energy, directed towards a pain or sorrow has the possibility of being effective. It certainly couldn't hurt.
So why mar such a great message with the "biased media" bit?
I'm assuming that the originator of this e-mail believes that "The Media," whatever the hell he/she thinks that means, is pro-actively conspiratorial against...what? The War? The Troops? Children? I believe that is the only conclusion you can come up with if you look at the heading above some of these truly beautiful photographs. As far as "The Media" (again, I have no idea what that phrase means) not printing or showing any of these pictures, I will take their word for it, because I do not really want to argue.
But I do remember this picture:
And this is the way it appeared on TV:
Rumsfeld actually called the whole scene "breathtaking."
But was it reality:
I'm not even mentioning "The Media's" (Does ANYONE know what that means?) total and utter complicity in the whole fabricated Jessica Lynch "Rambina" storyline.
I mentioned at the top of my post that I received this e-mail on November 11, Veterans Day. How many of you out there knew that that holiday was originally called Armistice Day? The reason for that was "on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918," the guns on the Western Front in WW I ceased firing. The generation of men in the trenches, the ones who "might have survived the shells but were still destroyed by the war," who had not known peace or quiet for 4 straight years, were finally going home. Millions had died and it was altogether proper to make a national day honoring those who served.
Needless to say that after WW II claimed another 600,000 plus American lives on many of the same fields the earlier generation perished on, the observance changed to honor all veterans and the military in general.
In fact, in the 87 years after "The War To End All Wars" ended, there have been, off the top of my head, at least five wars that we have officially fought: WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I and II. And then, of course, there was Grenada, Panama, Kosovo and Cuba. I am sure I am missing a whole bunch of others.
It's like we can't get enough.
So, The New York Daily News, in honor of Veterans Day, ran the following editorial:
I know the print is rather small so I would like to reprint a direct quote:
"This struggle is a pivotal one, an epic clash of civilizations, one of history's great shuddering paroxysms. It was already brewing 87 years ago today, when the guns fell silent in Europe and Armistice was declared and so many good-hearted souls truly believed humankind would war no more, Pretty it was to think so, but destiny had other plans.
"There are many who choose to believe that these soldiers died for nothing - for lies, for fraud, for some vast swindle. It would be a shameful thing if that were true, but it is not, and it honors neither the dead nor the living to cheapen the sacrifices already made and those still to come. It can be said this war has not always been waged wisely and it can be understood that more and more Americans are disheartened. But the cauldron of the Middle east is already more promisingly stable than it was not so very long ago, thanks to this U.S.-led war effort and to those who have fought and fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan."
If you agree with that portion of the editorial or not, I think we can all agree that it is certainly not "liberal." I would go as far as to say that the very idea that the Television Networks and Newspaper Syndicates, mostly owned by HUGE Conglomerates like G.E., Disney and Viacom are liberally biased is completely absurd and is a fabricated myth that has been hammered into the American psyche for the last 25 years.
And I didn't even mention the "all-news" station that is run by Roger Ailes who, before becoming a truth seeker, worked for those crazy hippies Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush.
I have been told over the past two weeks, by a couple of different people, who have bought into this "liberal media" myth, that it isn't anywhere near as bad over there as "The Media" (There's that word again!!!) is making it out to be. I believe the e-mail I reproduced in this post avers the same position. That is what makes printing this terribly sad roll call of the fallen so much more apropos.
In other words, I will grant that the situation in Iraq might not be as bad as I think it is, but if 58 soldiers from New York State alone have died there in one year's time, how good can it possibly be?
But what deeply affected me about this article were those pictures. As I scanned the images of the 58 New Yorkers who were killed last year, I saw every race, religion and ethnicity represented. Proud, strong faces, of both genders, looking like a true representation of the American populace. A cross section of our society who were asked to pay the ultimate price. And as I consider the true cost of our government policies, I find myself coming back to the same question over and over again.
Why?
By not being able to dismiss and ignore that fundamental question make me unpatriotic? Absolutely not. Am I supporting the troops less if I don't ask that burning question? Not in the slightest. Does it make me a traitor when I do not believe or agree with any of the answers given to me when I ask this question to my elected officials? Not even close.
I love this country...I despise who is running it.
I once again turn to Rueff's script for The Big Kahuna (1999). The scene is between two salesmen, one older and one younger, who have apparently blown a big deal. I have changed the names of the characters to make it more relevant.
George W Bush: So, you're saying I have to do some things I regret before I can have CHARACTER?!?
An Adult: No. I'm saying you've already done plenty of things to regret, you just don't know what they are. It's when you discover them, when you see the folly in something you've done, and you wish that you had it do over, but you know you can't, because it's too late. So you pick that thing up, and carry it with you to remind you that life goes on, the world will spin without you, you really don't matter in the end. Then you will gain character, because honesty will reach out from inside and tattoo itself across your face.
NOBODY in the current administration has any CHARACTER at all.
Larry
posted by Larry B | 11:22 PM
8 Comments:
30 service members died in the last year from New York http://icasualties.org/oif/Details.aspx
90 died in the last 2.5 years. The Daily News used people from the tristate area. Henry Irizairy (pictured top far right) lived in CT.
This rate of death is lower than during peace time. http://realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-10_27_05_JN.html
Joe
Excellent analogy of Bush with that movie script. I don't understand why, after you know about George W Bush's career, that people think he's a leader, or someone even worthy of a postion of leadership. And it has nothing to do with his drug use or the fact that he decided not to go to vietnam and not to continue in the Texas Air National Guard. Although the latter doesn't sit well when he asks men and women to die in this ill-conceived war. No it's the fact that he's never had to learn from any mistakes they way the rest of us learn from our mistakes. The struggles and pains that are part of our lives help us grow and give us character, as you pointed out, and qualities that would be something desired in a "leader". He went to Yale and Harvard because of his dad. He got out of military service because of his dad. He was bailed out of all his failed businesses and had these sweetheart deals handed to him because people wanted to cull favors from his dad, congressman, CIA chief, Vice President and President George HW Bush. And Bush Jr new it. He always had a safety net. So why is this man President?
I stand corrected on the actual number because I could of swore it said NY State but come to think of it makes sense that it would be the tri-state area. Isn't the overall total for our country 2,000 in two years? That works out to over three a day if my math is correct. That still doesn't sound good.
The larger point is what Paul is seconding. Thas is, based on the last five years, there is absolutely no reason to have any "trust" whatsoever in this administration. Especially with such a grand resource as OUR honor and loyalty personified by OUR armed forces.
I'm sorry I meant to say more than TWO a day. Please forgive the typo!!!
What an incredibly sad existence the Blogger must have, and also the commentators who agree with his writings. As someone who psyco-analyzes others for a living, I would suggest that instead of feeling that others should lighten up, this lightening up should be done by the Blogger and followers as well. To have so much hatred for a duly elected administration, (hatred that will definitely get no one anywhere), shows a human trait that is so unhealthy, and I feel for these individuals. When a specific commentator says, "Although the latter doesn't sit well when he asks men and women to die in this ill-conceived war," this is such a ridiculous statement, and not one really worth commenting on; other than the fact that the commentator should look back at other presidents of the United States who have also been in the same exact position as having not served in the armed forces. And where does the information come from, and stated as a FACT, that this president never had to learn from any mistakes, "...the way the rest of us learn from our mistakes?" The commentator does make a point that is true, and this trueness doesn't need to be learned in any classroom, and this being that, "...the struggles and pains that are part of our lives helps us grow and give us character...and something that would be desired in a leader..." But this verbiage is useless when put into the context of the commentator making these comments, and stating them as facts, when it is so evident that the commentator is a compulsive present administration hater. Yes, while it is "fact" that a lot of situations that the present president went through during his younger years, were taken care of by his father, (according to numerous reports and substantiated by the commentator), are the people to believe that it was the father who "crowned" his son president of the United States as well? To answer the final question of why is this man president, it is because he was elected by the American people, (a FACT that, of course, is still refuted by others like the commentator who will go to their graves still thinking that these past two presidential elections were "stolen.").
I've heard that "hate" quote before. People who use it are using the Ad Hominum argument.
"You poor soul, look how hatred has blackened your heart." Many have said.
"I feel for these individuals." Don't feel for me, feel for yourself. I have a full life. I care about human kind and believe in helping thy neigbor. I pray each night for just a little more love and compassion to find it's way to every heart The anger I have at this administration is justfied.
The assault on the environment, continous tax cuts and the reaction to disasters like Katrina are all things that are worthy of anger. But nothing in this administration makes me as angry as The Iraq War. Those in very powerful postions were part of the PNAC and they wanted war and we got war. And not only was the war sold on lies but the actual undertaking of it has been totally inept. I'm talking about those at the very top who are responsible for actually coming up with some sort of plan. The torture and the recent allegations of the US using White Phosphorous powder as a chemical weapon in Iraq is just something that raises the anger to even higher levels. But I believe that anger is an energy and I use that energy in a positive way. Whether it's taking a stand or writing or saying this is all wrong and I won't sit quietly while my country goes to hell.
I've said before that some people will support Bush no matter what, right to the end. And I do feel, now more than ever that Bush's end will be coming soon along with the neo-conservative/PNAC agenda.
As someone who psyco-analyzes others for a living, I would suggest that instead of feeling that others should lighten up, this lightening up should be done by the Blogger and followers as well.
Do you mean perhaps that you judge others for a living? Cause I thought psycho analysis was supposed to be objective. Do you find your patients incredibly sad as well, for having problems and anger? IF so, do they know this? Cause that would suck. And probably cause an uncomfortable non-therapeutic environment, one that adds to the guilt and remorse they must feel for being alive in the first place.
Unless you only psycho analyze the healthy minds.
And in any event, I agree that hatred is a futile waste. But disagreeing with an administration is not "hating" them in an unhealthy fashion. Rather, it brings about conversation, debate and hopefully change. Why? Because not everyone in this country voted for Bush. And not everyone who DID vote for Bush thinks he is leading the nation.
And there are problems that our country can not ignore at the moment.
Wanting competent leaders is also, perhaps, a feeling of self worth.
I guess when reading my post, your "professional" overwhelming focus was on "my sad existence," instead of any of my points or concerns. Wait a minute, not only mine, but everyone "who agrees with me" as well.
I would tell you the state of my existence but not only would you not believe that I have an incredible amount of empathy, large doses of joy and healthy pinches of anger and cynisism...all on a daily basis...ALL of the emotions that make a healthy human being, but it is also completely inmaterial.
Congratulations!!
You also have me writing, and evidently people reading, a comment about me personally instead of the reckless mismanagent and the fundamental philosphical wrong turn of this great country which, believe it or not, is mine too.
Messenger attacked...
Mission accomplished!
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