American Views Abroad

 
TomDispatch quotes a passage of a letter Sgt. Kevin Benderman wrote on why he was refusing a second deployment to Iraq and informs us that Benderman has been jailed for 15 months by the military for his stand. The Benderman quote is in reference to how video games distort the reality of war. Tom further writes:

'But I was also reminded to the degree to which journalism -- especially the TV talking-heads variety -- sometimes has the sterile feel of a video game in which points ping back and forth without anything of great human import ever seeming to be a stake.' He also includes a link to the overwhelming applause peace activists at a Maine Fourth of July parade get and claims 'something is slowly changing in this country.' What follows in the rest of his report is a letter from Texas about a local son killed in Iraq and buried on his 19th birthday. http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=9439

German radio just reported 14 US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed in a bomb explosion today.

In They Just Never Meant Very Much to Us -- Samples from an Ocean of Suffering, David Edwards discusses what's behind our emotional responses when hearing of yet another bombing and more killings:

'The truth is that we are trained to value the lives of our countrymen more highly by a socio-political system that has much to gain from a restricted, patriotic version of compassion, and much to lose from an excess of popular concern for suffering inflicted on 'foreigners' by our governments and corporations. It was a very real disaster for the American elites when ordinary Americans became outraged by the catastrophe inflicted by US power on the people of Vietnam. This concern seriously obstructed US realpolitik, stirring previously slumbering democratic forces and threatening elite control of society.' www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9592.htm

Uwe E. Reinhardt in his Who's Paying for Our Patriotism op-ed piece in the Washington Post sees this from another angle:

'A policymaking elite whose families and purses are shielded from the sacrifices war entails may rush into it hastily and ill prepared, as surely was the case of the Iraq war. ....Moral hazard can explain why, in wartime, the TV anchors on the morning and evening shows barely make time to report on the wars, lest the reports displace the silly banter with which they seek to humor their viewers. Do they ever wonder how military families with loved ones in the fray might feel after hearing ever so briefly of mayhem in Iraq or Afghanistan? Moral hazard also can explain why the general public is so noticeably indifferent to the plight of our troops and their families.'
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/31/AR2005073101080.html

Today's NYT reports that a Republican state legislator narrowly won a special Congressional election in southern Ohio on Tuesday, ending a bid by her Democratic opponent to become the first combat veteran from the Iraq war to serve in Congress. She won by 4,000 votes.
Details and comment on this at www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080305A.shtml.
- posted by Gloria @ 6:12 PM