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Saya · 03-15-2012, 09:05 PM

I don't think so. When we look at the Vietnam War, plenty of veterans were willing to testify to the genocide and war crimes they witnessed, such as with the Winter Soldier Investigation. It was the first televised war, and it was impossible to escape coverage. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans held their own Winter Soldier Investigation as well, plenty of people are trying to get that message out, and there was an outpour of information of HOW THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA beginning with Afghanistan but especially with the Iraq War.

Part of it is the government and politicians, yes. They don't want the people to know, but I don't think they maliciously realize that soldiers might be running over kids, the way they talk soldiers were there with flowers and a smile on their face for all of God's children, while heroically battling the evil terrorists, and bringing democracy to a people who would greet them as liberators. At the end of the Iraq War and now with the Afghanistan occupation winding down, and the economy wrecked, now its a lot harder to ignore that they were wrong and living in Lala-land. They're megalomaniacs who believe in the sanctity of American military that can do no harm, except for a few rogue soldiers.

Also, if you haven't read it, Regarding The Pain Of Others by Susan Sontag makes a good point that even if you get the horrors of war out there, people can rationalize it away. Ever see the picture of the naked Vietnamese girl running down the road, covered in napalm? When Nixon saw the photo, immediately he said it must be fake. No one wants to believe that we can be the bad guys sometimes, and we sent people to do some really terrible things because our generation had no working memory of Vietnam, and those who remembered chose to remember it differently than it had happened. It's taken thirty years for America to justify a decade long war again. I think Iraq is generally written off by most people as a mistake, But in ten, twenty, thirty years, will we remember it correctly? Or will we just remember what we see in movies that will be made since?

So will we remember this time, or will we forget it and do this all over again?

03-15-2012, 09:05 PM	#24
Saya Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 9,548	I don't think so. When we look at the Vietnam War, plenty of veterans were willing to testify to the genocide and war crimes they witnessed, such as with the Winter Soldier Investigation. It was the first televised war, and it was impossible to escape coverage. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans held their own Winter Soldier Investigation as well, plenty of people are trying to get that message out, and there was an outpour of information of HOW THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA beginning with Afghanistan but especially with the Iraq War. Part of it is the government and politicians, yes. They don't want the people to know, but I don't think they maliciously realize that soldiers might be running over kids, the way they talk soldiers were there with flowers and a smile on their face for all of God's children, while heroically battling the evil terrorists, and bringing democracy to a people who would greet them as liberators. At the end of the Iraq War and now with the Afghanistan occupation winding down, and the economy wrecked, now its a lot harder to ignore that they were wrong and living in Lala-land. They're megalomaniacs who believe in the sanctity of American military that can do no harm, except for a few rogue soldiers. Also, if you haven't read it, Regarding The Pain Of Others by Susan Sontag makes a good point that even if you get the horrors of war out there, people can rationalize it away. Ever see the picture of the naked Vietnamese girl running down the road, covered in napalm? When Nixon saw the photo, immediately he said it must be fake. No one wants to believe that we can be the bad guys sometimes, and we sent people to do some really terrible things because our generation had no working memory of Vietnam, and those who remembered chose to remember it differently than it had happened. It's taken thirty years for America to justify a decade long war again. I think Iraq is generally written off by most people as a mistake, But in ten, twenty, thirty years, will we remember it correctly? Or will we just remember what we see in movies that will be made since? So will we remember this time, or will we forget it and do this all over again?