Many Americans still see the war as a football game.

[Philosoraptor]

proud2Blib has a post about how people get all pissy when they lose a football game, and it got me to thinking that this is the mentality millions of citizens have about bush's war of terror on Iraq.

Do they not constantly use words like WIN and LOSE and VICTORY as if it were some gigantic, bloody sporting event? When republics call cspan they go all foamy spouting about how we can't leave without victory, or winning, or if we leave we've lost, all football terminologies.

Here comes a herd of drunken football fans after a losing game, and they see anti war people demonstrating and they see TWO defeats, one of their team, and one of their country, and they throw beer bottles and curse.

They don't see the half a million dead Iraqis. They don't see the three thousand dead soldiers. They don't see the twenty thousand crippled soldiers, they just see a giant scoreboard in the sky with losing numbers on it and it pisses them off that their lousy team is losing.

When your team loses, who do you curse? The players/soldiers? The coach/commander in chief? Is it really your fault that your team lost? No, you're just pissed because you like it when your team wins, it gives you that old chimpanzee feeling of camaraderie or whatever you call it.

This ain't no fucking football game to be won or lost, but that's how the president and the majority of republic voters see it. WE JUST CAN'T LEAVE WITHOUT A VICTORY PARADE! What about that 200 million dollar victory party the republics had planned?

America isn't losing a war, we're exiting a clusterfuck in slow motion. You can't win OR lose a game like this, only a 12 year old could possibly think that.

[Altean Wanderer]

1. Right on ... and our pResident especially should read your post n/t

[monarch]

2. K & R

Perfectly captures the dementia of the wingnuts!

[Kellyiswise]

3. Sorry, but 12-year olds know better.

[MetaTrope]

4. That's how it's been since the 2000 election theft

Doesn't matter how they play, so long as their side wins. Even if the spectators get shafted in the process.

[trumad]

5. Disagree about it being millions of citizens

The polls clearly indicate that the country is firmly against this war. Oh sure we still have the chickenhawks quacking away...but the country wants this war to end.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. As long as they see it as a football game where

we just got our bloated over funded asses handed to us by a bunch of scrawny kids without even proper uniforms, I'm fine with that.

[izzybeans]

7. "Let's Go! If they could only get this onside kick we can turn this thing around.

We are only down by 30 points. We've got plenty of time!!!! Put me in coach. I'm ready to play!!!!"...."Uhm...Nevermind. Go Teammmm!!!!"

[KharmaTrain]

8. It's A Remote Control War...

Most people saw all the "neat" stuff...especially in the early days of the Iraq invasion. Besides being up for some good old American bloodlust following 9/11, they wanted entertainment and we sure got it with "Shock & Awe" didn't we? :sarcasm:

Most people watched the war when it was neat...seeing the correspodant on the aircraft carrier as the Cruise missiles were going off or aboard the convoy as it blasted its way into Downtown Baghdad. Those great Pentagon video shows with the threading the warhead down the trash chute along with the neat music and graphics sure made this war fun, wasn't it. It was the hit of the 2003 TV season. But then the script started to get a little worn...

People loved the war when it is a click or several away. Don't like what you're seeing or hearing on CNN...just pop over to Faux...they'll make you feel good about the carnage. It's a sport there...and our side always wins. When something goes wrong, it's someone elses fault...a bad referee or some dirty trick by the opposition. It's one-dimensional and fits well with the remote control crowd.

The sad problem is many in this country still see Iraq as a TV show, a video game...something very remote and in very simnplistic terms. We are so blind to the culture and history of that part of the world and our corporate media has fed us decades of a myopic world view that has allowed the Numbnutz regime to exploit the "win at all costs" mentality in this country to their own devices.

Joe Six-Pack just sees this invasion as another "spectacular" that is won and lost...is good vs. evil...it's a cartoon show with little need for reality as that just messes up the plot line.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. There are no goal posts in this "game" of Bushs'

[medium ripe banana]

10. You got it

If the war was going well, how many Americans would be against it? It would probably be only those of us who have been against it from the start understand what's going on.

I believe this is my fourth post. I will introduce myself formally when I get enough replies posted.

[ms liberty]

12. Welcome to DU, medium ripe banana! n/t

[newyawker99]

16. Hi medium ripe banana!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Captain Hilts]

11. The demographic that watches football is so broad, it is not really fair to...

label them like this.

[treestar]

14. This is very inside-out

No, the point was that it's OK to treat a football game like that. But a WAR is not a football game.

[treestar]

13. This applied to the First Gulf War

I recall thinking that the way people were about that war could only be described as "happy and excited."

They were positively HAPPY - 9 out of 10 people you talked to. Positively having a good time.

Like it was a football game.

[ms liberty]

15. I've noticed this phenomenom myself...

It's not just the war, it's the whole damn Democrats/Republicans thing. This is a KKKKarl Rove legacy, (and a Lee Atwater legacy), IMHO. They have used every trick in the book to increase the divide between us, and the sporting mentality is a perfect vehicle for getting people to come on board. They can cheer 'their' team. In basketball it's known as the 'sixth man', in that the fans are a part of the team, and their participation helps win games - it makes the fan important to success.
The idea that it's 'us versus them'...and 'us' are the good guys, the people who love Amurika and puppies, mom and apple pie; and 'them' are the god-and-america-hating-pinko-commie-liberal-socialists.
You see it a bit on our side, but the wide and diverse viewpoints of democrats inoculates us somewhat against that kind of black-or-white thinking. We see the shades of gray in between. We're also more resistant because we tend to be natural non-conformists and we resist ANYONE telling us what to think!

edited to clean up punctuation and grammer!

[NotGivingUp]

17. that's it! that's the mentality!

[Poiuyt]

18. Philosorapter, I love your posts

The football analogy is spot on. People like Norah O'Donnell are always asking liberals, "Would you rather see us lose?" To America, losing a war is unacceptable, even though nothing would change (at least in this case. WWII was a different matter). It is just beyond America's macho, John Wayne ego. I just say, "So what." Let's do what's best for America.

[Philosoraptor]

19. ---------

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Yep and they will continue to

until their skin is in the grid iron... to use a reference they will get