drunken ramblings on war and movies
I wrote the following post last friday while drunk, and just now got around to cleanign it up a little. It probably is rambling and full of BS. You wave been forwarned.
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So, I just watched the documentary "Gunner Palace". I bought this DVD like a year ago, and only now got around to watching it. Its an excellent film that gives a view of the war in Iraq that you wont see on TV. You see these kids who are over there fighting in our name, and regardless of what you feel about whether they should be there or not, you cant help but seeing the human side of them and feeling for them. They are following orders, and there is nothing but honor in that. Even a jaded lefty liberal like me wanted only to talk to these soldiers and hear their stories and understand what they have seen and experienced. Some of these soldiers are like 19, I mean, I'm a lot older than that, and what the hell have I done with my life? For better or for worse, they are at least theoretically fighting for SOMETHING, while I sit on my ass and drink beer and watch porn. Not that I'm about to join the army, but it does make you want to do something to make the world a better place.
Anyway, seeing "Gunner Palace" gave me the impetus to finally post about something that has been rattling around in my head for a while. Obviously anyone who has been living under a rock less than 2 metric tons knows that the middle east is currenlty exploding in a shitpile of death and destruction. Some even think this is the beginning of armageddon (maybe I should read revelations whil I still can). Hezbolla kidnapped some Israeli soldiers and lobbed some misslies onto Israel, Israel bombed the shit out of Lebanon, and everyone went apeshit.... Now, I am a pacifist, and a simplist, so to me all this seems pretty retarded... but the more I watch the news (I'm a glutton for punishment I guess) The more pissed off I get. This is not a red/blue state issue, but there are two sides to the debate in this country and they are both retarded (note, a]no offense to mentally disabled people b]everyones entitled ot their opinion, and I am entitled to my opinion that your opinion is retarded). Being the glutton for news-overload punishment that I am, I listen to CSPAN's Washington Journal almost every morning while I'm in the shower. Really, it is a great show, probably as good as a call-in show can get. But almost everyone who calls in falls into one of two camps (as do most media sources):
CAMP 1), the I support israel even if they rape my daughter and salt my crops camp. This camp thinks that our foreign policy should follow whatever Israel says and Israel is incapable of bad judgement or alterier motives. They think that if Hezbolla talks shit about Israel, Israel would be showing restraint if they left a Lebanon sized crater in the middle east and induced a mild nuclear winter.
CAMP 2). The Mel Gibson Camp. This camp thinks that Israel is the devil incarnate and incapable or doing anything justifiable. They border on supporting Hezbolla and Hamas terrorist actions and think that Hezbolla is mounting a legitimate military campaign here.
Ok, Your both wrong. Ya idiots. Look, Israel is reacting to being attacked. They are justified in fighting back. They are not however justified in going to the extents they have. What do you know, both sides have a grain of truth and a grain of dumbassness. If Canada decided to kidnap some American soldiers and rain Katyusha rockets on Detroit, what the fuck would we do? We'd bomb the shit out of Saskatchewan is what we'd do, and the same people who comdemn Israel whouldn't complain about it. But thats not to say that Israel is without blame. They need to realize that killing inocent civilians is only going to help the enemy. Do you think that Hezbollah didnt predict their response? Of course they did, and the response plays right into their hands by turning moderate Lebanese to their cause and ensuring that Hezbollah can claim a raison d'etre now that Israel has invaded again. Hezbollah is now rescued from the edge of insignificance to a (somewhat) justifiable existence. Shit, half the freaking country is Christian, and Israel is unnecesarily killing civilians, Its hard to claim that all of those civilians are enemies of Israel. That cant possbibly be good PR. The country as a whole does not overwhelmingly support Hezboillah, but they probably will when you cut off their exit routes and blow they hell out of their houses. Not to mention that in my mind at least, there is no such thing as collateral damage. There is no justification for killing another human other that DIRECT self defense. If someone is aiming a gun at you or someone else, then you can kill them... but if that gun aiming person is in the middle of a bunch of kids, there is no justifying the death of those kids. Even if you bomb the gun guy and kill the kids, you can't just say "they were at the wrong place at the wrong time" and go on with your life. You may feel you have to sacrifice them, but you can't poretend that it is anything short of a tragedy. You can't just say "well, war is hell" and be done with it. So yeah, Israel, stop fucking killing so many damn civilians. Its not helping your cause at all, and its wrong.
On the other hand however, you can't expect Israel to just let a bunch of terrorists kidnap their soldiers and incessently bomb their cities. They have to fight back. They are a little tiny Jewish country in the middle of a bunch of Arab/Persian/brown-people countries and a bunch of people who seem to agree with the religious right in our country that their religion and morality should be forcibly inflicted on the entire world. Israle has to fight back lest they face ceasing to exist as a nation. Thats a fate our country hasn't even had to consider for the last couple hundred years or so. "But Tim, didnt the Israelis steal their land from the Arabs who have been there since the dawning of time/ Didn't the Arabs steal the land from the Israelites in the first place and therefore the Israelis were merely taking back the land that was rightfully theirs/?". Good question... the answer is: I have no idea, and who gives a damn. People have to live with the situation as it is now, regardless of the percieved wrongs that their people suffered. The American Indians got fucked over royally by our ancestors, and you dont see them blowing themsleves up at discotheques. Not that we call them discotheques here, but thats not the point. I think that if all sides in this middle east conflict just decided to deal with the hand they have been dealt and be conducive to the other side doing the same (ie, no blowing yourself or anyone else up), things would be a lot better. I can never ever understand what it is like for the people on both sides of the conflict. I have no horse in this race other than the desire for peace, but I think that if people could distance themselves from the rhetoric and the percieved slights of the past, they could see the humanity in their enemy and work for a world where people of different cultures/religions/backgrounds could get along. Obviously it is not soley a religious fight, there are plenty of Muslims living peacefully in Israel.
Going back to the movie "Gunner Palace", when the soldiers first got there, they were welcomed into the country by the majority of civilians. Say what you will about the motivations and whether we should have been there, but we did some good. However, as time went on, the people of Iraq got less and less fond of our presence. The moral, is that in a war like this, where you are dealing with an insurgency that blends in and is part of the civilian population, you have to keep the hearts and mids of the general population. If you fail to do this, then the people you claim to be liberating become the enemy. No one has to join an army and put on a uniform to fight back, they just have to get pissed off enough by your presence to want to lob a grenade at you.
"Gunner Palace" was shot in 2003 and early 2004. From the looks of it, things have gotten worse since then. We have the largest and strongest military in the world and yet 2 years later, we are still fighting a bunch of ragtag militias. We're obviously doing something wrong. Israel is easily the greatest army in their region and yet after a month of fighting they have made no headway against the same kind of ragtag geurilla warriors we are fighting in Iraq. So yeah, I think Israel should take a lesson from that and make sure they aren't alienating the people of Lebanon.
*Take all of this with a grain of salt. It is either the uninformed, unsourced rantings of a drunken lunatic, or the most intelligent thing you have ever read
---------------------------------------------
So, I just watched the documentary "Gunner Palace". I bought this DVD like a year ago, and only now got around to watching it. Its an excellent film that gives a view of the war in Iraq that you wont see on TV. You see these kids who are over there fighting in our name, and regardless of what you feel about whether they should be there or not, you cant help but seeing the human side of them and feeling for them. They are following orders, and there is nothing but honor in that. Even a jaded lefty liberal like me wanted only to talk to these soldiers and hear their stories and understand what they have seen and experienced. Some of these soldiers are like 19, I mean, I'm a lot older than that, and what the hell have I done with my life? For better or for worse, they are at least theoretically fighting for SOMETHING, while I sit on my ass and drink beer and watch porn. Not that I'm about to join the army, but it does make you want to do something to make the world a better place.
Anyway, seeing "Gunner Palace" gave me the impetus to finally post about something that has been rattling around in my head for a while. Obviously anyone who has been living under a rock less than 2 metric tons knows that the middle east is currenlty exploding in a shitpile of death and destruction. Some even think this is the beginning of armageddon (maybe I should read revelations whil I still can). Hezbolla kidnapped some Israeli soldiers and lobbed some misslies onto Israel, Israel bombed the shit out of Lebanon, and everyone went apeshit.... Now, I am a pacifist, and a simplist, so to me all this seems pretty retarded... but the more I watch the news (I'm a glutton for punishment I guess) The more pissed off I get. This is not a red/blue state issue, but there are two sides to the debate in this country and they are both retarded (note, a]no offense to mentally disabled people b]everyones entitled ot their opinion, and I am entitled to my opinion that your opinion is retarded). Being the glutton for news-overload punishment that I am, I listen to CSPAN's Washington Journal almost every morning while I'm in the shower. Really, it is a great show, probably as good as a call-in show can get. But almost everyone who calls in falls into one of two camps (as do most media sources):
CAMP 1), the I support israel even if they rape my daughter and salt my crops camp. This camp thinks that our foreign policy should follow whatever Israel says and Israel is incapable of bad judgement or alterier motives. They think that if Hezbolla talks shit about Israel, Israel would be showing restraint if they left a Lebanon sized crater in the middle east and induced a mild nuclear winter.
CAMP 2). The Mel Gibson Camp. This camp thinks that Israel is the devil incarnate and incapable or doing anything justifiable. They border on supporting Hezbolla and Hamas terrorist actions and think that Hezbolla is mounting a legitimate military campaign here.
Ok, Your both wrong. Ya idiots. Look, Israel is reacting to being attacked. They are justified in fighting back. They are not however justified in going to the extents they have. What do you know, both sides have a grain of truth and a grain of dumbassness. If Canada decided to kidnap some American soldiers and rain Katyusha rockets on Detroit, what the fuck would we do? We'd bomb the shit out of Saskatchewan is what we'd do, and the same people who comdemn Israel whouldn't complain about it. But thats not to say that Israel is without blame. They need to realize that killing inocent civilians is only going to help the enemy. Do you think that Hezbollah didnt predict their response? Of course they did, and the response plays right into their hands by turning moderate Lebanese to their cause and ensuring that Hezbollah can claim a raison d'etre now that Israel has invaded again. Hezbollah is now rescued from the edge of insignificance to a (somewhat) justifiable existence. Shit, half the freaking country is Christian, and Israel is unnecesarily killing civilians, Its hard to claim that all of those civilians are enemies of Israel. That cant possbibly be good PR. The country as a whole does not overwhelmingly support Hezboillah, but they probably will when you cut off their exit routes and blow they hell out of their houses. Not to mention that in my mind at least, there is no such thing as collateral damage. There is no justification for killing another human other that DIRECT self defense. If someone is aiming a gun at you or someone else, then you can kill them... but if that gun aiming person is in the middle of a bunch of kids, there is no justifying the death of those kids. Even if you bomb the gun guy and kill the kids, you can't just say "they were at the wrong place at the wrong time" and go on with your life. You may feel you have to sacrifice them, but you can't poretend that it is anything short of a tragedy. You can't just say "well, war is hell" and be done with it. So yeah, Israel, stop fucking killing so many damn civilians. Its not helping your cause at all, and its wrong.
On the other hand however, you can't expect Israel to just let a bunch of terrorists kidnap their soldiers and incessently bomb their cities. They have to fight back. They are a little tiny Jewish country in the middle of a bunch of Arab/Persian/brown-people countries and a bunch of people who seem to agree with the religious right in our country that their religion and morality should be forcibly inflicted on the entire world. Israle has to fight back lest they face ceasing to exist as a nation. Thats a fate our country hasn't even had to consider for the last couple hundred years or so. "But Tim, didnt the Israelis steal their land from the Arabs who have been there since the dawning of time/ Didn't the Arabs steal the land from the Israelites in the first place and therefore the Israelis were merely taking back the land that was rightfully theirs/
Going back to the movie "Gunner Palace", when the soldiers first got there, they were welcomed into the country by the majority of civilians. Say what you will about the motivations and whether we should have been there, but we did some good. However, as time went on, the people of Iraq got less and less fond of our presence. The moral, is that in a war like this, where you are dealing with an insurgency that blends in and is part of the civilian population, you have to keep the hearts and mids of the general population. If you fail to do this, then the people you claim to be liberating become the enemy. No one has to join an army and put on a uniform to fight back, they just have to get pissed off enough by your presence to want to lob a grenade at you.
"Gunner Palace" was shot in 2003 and early 2004. From the looks of it, things have gotten worse since then. We have the largest and strongest military in the world and yet 2 years later, we are still fighting a bunch of ragtag militias. We're obviously doing something wrong. Israel is easily the greatest army in their region and yet after a month of fighting they have made no headway against the same kind of ragtag geurilla warriors we are fighting in Iraq. So yeah, I think Israel should take a lesson from that and make sure they aren't alienating the people of Lebanon.
*Take all of this with a grain of salt. It is either the uninformed, unsourced rantings of a drunken lunatic, or the most intelligent thing you have ever read
posted by Unknown | Friday, August 04, 2006
1 Comments:
Dude, are you implying that I live a priveledged life free of hardships and therefore can't understand the plight of people less fortunate? Thats bullshit man, I know hardship. I have to go like 5 miles to get to a starbucks, my cable internet keeps crapping out, my 32 inch tv keeps going black and needing to be smacked in order to work, I have to pay 3 dollars for a gallon of gas, if thats not hardship, I dont know what is.
In all seriousness though. I was not condoning war crimes, just saying that it is honorable to defend your country in whatever way the powers that be deem to be right, as long as in defending your country you are following the international standards of warfare. Thats not to say that it is not also honorable for a soldier to protest against their orders, but in a way the army is there to fight for our country and it is up to us, as citizens, not them as soldiers to ensure that the wars they are engaging in are just ones. Of course that whole unitary executive ("I can declare war whenever and on whomever I want yeehaw!") thing makes that a little difficult.
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