War: Iraq, Iran and the Greatest Generation

What a miserable topic to bring up. War. But it’s looming over all our heads. And any one of us who isn’t thinking about it should be ashamed because whether we agree or disagree with why our fellow countrymen are over in the Middle East fighting, they’re risking their lives daily, and we’re not. And for that reason alone we should be thinking about them, if not actively doing something to bring them home.

So why the topic War? Ken Burns just completed a documentary for PBS titled THE WAR, which has gotten huge ratings. Through the roof. But he made the documentary in part because he read that “many high school teenagers believe that America fought alongside Germany in World War II against Russia.” Wow. A remarkable testament to Bush’s “no child left behind” policy. And in case you’re one of those who’re confused, we did not fight alongside Germany, we fought AGAINST them.

The documentary fought very hard to make a point that resonates clearly about the generation that fought during World War II, and our generation which is currently fighting, I suppose, “The War on Terror?” As our troops are spread throughout Iraq and Afghanistan and it certainly isn’t World War III.

The generation that fought during World War II was called “The Greatest Generation.” And it was a great generation because the prevailing attitude of Americans was “if we have to fight a war, we had better do it right.”

People from every corner of the nation selflessly pooled their resources for the great cause of World War II, and I’m not sure about this one, but I don’t think President Roosevelt ever once asked the country to sacrifice by going to the mall. And I’m pretty sure he didn’t outsource the construction of tanks, Flying Fortresses, Hellcats and Thunderbolts to Mexico and China.

In 1941 three million cars were made. After that only a few hundred cars were made until the end of the war because instead auto manufacturers were making military hardware for the war.

Did President Roosevelt cut taxes or ask veterans to pay higher deductibles? Did President Roosevelt outsource the army by hiring no-bid corporate mercenaries? No. Everybody fought. Everybody paid. People gave up everything, but were strengthened by their collective effort. It was a testament to the generation. It wasn’t just those who fought, but those who stayed behind, who pulled together and worked together. They were in it. They were IN war. Oh there were the same range of political opinions, but somehow those differences were set aside for the effort of the group.

And that’s what makes it so laughable when Bush makes his comparisons of this war to World War II. If it’s so important to stay in Iraq, and if it’s so important to invade Iran, and all of it is part of a larger World War II style conflict,then why isn’t Bush taking his metaphors more seriously by demanding the sacrifices of World War II?

Which brings me to Iran. Ahmadinejad. Now he gets invited to Columbia University to speak and there is a huge public outrage. It is the headline on CNN for days. The dean is getting major flack. So what happens? The speaking engagement comes around, and the dean is supposed to introduce him and instead of just saying “Here he is,” he spends half an hour calling him an asshole. So Ahmadinejad comes of looking like the good guy because his response is “I’m sorry you feel that way, what can I say?” and then he answers some questions. Granted some of his answers were laughable. But why do you invite someone to speak and then chastise him? Why not let him hang himself with his own rope?

We have made this guy out to be such an evil man. He denies the Holocaust ever happened and he’d like to wipe Israel off the map. But there are Jews in the Iranian Parliament. He can’t be so anti-Semitic that he can’t work with his own Parliament. Perhaps, and I don’t take this lightly, the western media does not always portray the world as it is…

I was in Mexico during Mexican presidential elections and watched them covered by the BBBC World News and there were near riots when the people’s party didn’t win, and I returned to the United States to realize we were backing a different party and there was no rioting reported and the new president’s first stop was to meet with President Bush. So I’m just saying, sometimes we get news that the rest of the world hears differently.

So is it possible that Ahmadinejad has to say these things in order to get elected? Like republicans say that being gay is a sin and gay marriage is an outrage and not recognized by law and abortion is the same as murder? I mean we have plenty of propaganda here in the good ole’ US of A, it’s just propaganda that we’re used to and that we choose to believe or not believe, but we hear it all the time. We’re desensitized to it. Ahmadinejad’s propaganda is propaganda that we’re not accustomed to hearing so it shocks us. But I bet there are a lot of people in the Middle Eastern countries who use the same rhetoric and it’s that rhetoric that helps get politicians elected. It’s just that Ahmadinejad has suddenly become a prominent face on the political scene with his “good looks” and his Gucci suits…

So is Ahmadinejad as evil as Bush has made him out to be? Or is he another Saddam Hussein who we will go in and kill only to find was an empty dictator who was no real threat and have an even worse nightmare on our hands because Iran is a much larger country with much more solidarity and with much less interest in democracy than Iraq. God, please don’t let Bush do anything stupid before we have another president in office…

You know, another thing that no one talks about - but if we leave Iraq, there will be millions of refugees fleeing the Iraq because the country is in such a state of disaster. And where will they go? Well some will go to Saudi Arabia. But the majority are going to flee to Iran. And Iran doesn’t want these refugees. What are they going to do with millions of people? We keep talking about Iran coming in and taking over Iraq, but their first problem is going to be half of Iraq coming in and taking over Iran. So Iran has a vested interest in our staying in Iraq. Which is why now is the time to enter into diplomatic talks with Iran. Not to threaten them with war. How stupid could we be? We could negotiate away all of our problems with Iran based on the fact that people are going to come pouring through their borders if we leave. Oh, if Bush would just squeeze his tiny little brain enough to foresee this problem and sit down and and talk…

Oh well. I guess you can’t have everything in a president. I mean I guess you can’t have anything in this president.