Tonight, I had a conversation with a supporter of the Iraq war.  Unfortunately, I work with him.  I have talked to other supporters before -- however, many of those people are no longer supporters (I think the full-on support number is like 30% now).  I am a pretty politically motivated person, and I am very opposed to the war, but in work situations, I really try to avoid the topic.  But it came up.  And I methodically refuted every argument he hurled at me (is it even hard anymore?).  He actually tried to pull the "but Americans die every day from faulty products, accidents, etc." argument.  If that is really how war supporters view the deaths of our troops over there, than they are the ones not honoring the sacrifices made.  That really gets me. 

 

Anyway, he had met a Marine at a bar last night, and he and the Marine talked about their support for the war for hours, supposedly.  And this Marine and he agreed that the media was doing everything possible to suppress the truth about all of the great things Americans are doing in Iraq.  Are you kidding me?  I really fucking hope so, because we're entering our FOURTH YEAR of being there!  The nerve someone has to make that argument really really irks me.  Of course we are doing good things, we have some amazing people over there working their asses off.  But, what have we really done for a) the future of Iraq b) the future of America and c) the futures of all of the (now) widow/ers and (now) father and mother-less children?  We have introduced chaos, absolute chaos, into stability, perpetuated hate between civilizations, and set back American diplomacy several decades.  We have let bleed a wound that will not heal, that will fester, that will destroy many more lives and weaken our nation no matter what we do (withdrawal and "staying the course" are equally unpalatable and dangerous). 

 

How can someone who is an educated, high-paid professional be such a blind lackey of the Bush administration?  I suppose only be being so entirely detached from reality that, just as the Bush people were in convincing themselves that Saddam had nukes, he convinces himself it is all SO worth it, and that, yeah, if they didn't die from improvised explosive devices in Baghdad back alleys, blinded by night and the chaos of guerrilla war, they would've died from faulty some Firestone tires on their Ford Explorers.