Yeah, I was REALLY bummed about the war in 2003...

[Bonobo]

I even went and wasted a whole couple days protesting (as if that did any good!) Man, I swear, I was spitting mad!

In 2004, I felt like it would never end! We passed the 1,000 mark and I couldn't believe there were yellow ribbons on cars everywhere! Grrr, I hated those fucking Republicans! Man! I'm telling you!

In 2005, I was starting to feel some fatigue, but oh boy, you bet I kept on calling my senators! I wrote emails, gave money to Democratic candidates, you know! I bet you were the same way!

In 2006, I felt the change coming! There was a wave of anti-war feelings in the air! People were sick of it! The mainstream finally was starting to get it! Then the election! Oh my god! It exceeded my wildest hopes! Now things were definitely going to change! Thos first 20-30 days were incredible! Godamn! The Dems would move fast and strike, armed with the unassailable power of the mandate they had received! Both houses! I couldn't remember things looking that good since the 90's!

In 2007, I started to really, really appreciate how bad things were. We had been had -by our own side. Throw out the rule book...what the fuck is going on here!? That's where I was in 2007. Desperate, desperate cynicism and loss of hope.

2008... Who the fuck knows. Who cares about the Iraq War anymore. Economy so fucked up, gas so high, oil so high, getting old, gotta find a job, can't afford health insurance but can't cut back cause you're already in that last bracket with the $50 co-pays and the $10,000 deductibles. Couldn't take that vacation with the family anymore. Wondering if it's smart living in such a cold part of the country. Where will food come from if the shit really hits the fan? Car gone, it was leased. What the fuck do I do now. Gotta buy a used one....

War? What war was that?

:sarcasm: or is it?

--------------------------
I wrote the above, ironically, to try to express my frustration with the fact that the War has dropped off the radar completely as an issue for so many, many people. It is understandable given the election, the hard time. etc. Soldiers are a tiny minority of the population and other than the knowledge that innocents are dying on both sides and the psychic pain of that, I am forced to make no sacrifice for this "War", so it is easy to not really care about it.

I really care. It is my number one issue. This is my main reason for being against Hillary. Out of all 3, she has the worst position on the war and the worst record on the war. That is what I believe and so I work against her being selected as our Democratic nominee.

[TahitiNut]

1. We've always been at war with Eastasia. It's now banal.

:puke:

[warren pease]

9. But by the end of summer, we'll be at war with Eurasia, just as we always have been...

Yeah, it's really that bad. And as usual, mass corporate media plays the leading role in spewing disinformation and creating mass confusion. This is from another GD post currently on the first page:

From yesterday's NY Daily News:

"We've come through some pretty rough times, but things are goin' great now," he (Bush) told an old friend recently.

Like his father, Bush has always embraced the half-full view of life and politics. But longtime Bush-watchers report that even by that genetically rosy standard - critics might suggest Pollyannaish - his cheerfulness of late is remarkable.

"You'd think he'd just be happy to be getting the hell out of a place he can't stand," a close pal told the Daily News. "But he's really up. I'm amazed how up."

Bush's inner tranquility mainly derives from a profound sense of vindication regarding the Iraq war. The success of the troop surge he launched a year ago has given him the last laugh over the skeptics, Bush believes.

"He thinks we're not just winning in Iraq," says someone who speaks with Bush often, "he thinks we're routing them. He believes we're doing 10 times better than everybody else perceives."

So one of the most widely distributed US papers, owned by man of the people Mort Zuckerman, the 188th richest American (Forbes, 2007), accepts uncritically the crazy and wrong BushCo talking point that the "surge" -- or, in English, the escalation -- is a success. Evidence to the contrary is all over the http://212.187.153.30/usa/story/0,,2223700,00.html">international press and even the US press on the net, but the secret's safe here in the insular land of the information averse who prefer D-list celebrity gossip to anything remotely relevant to their weird little lives.

At least the article raises the possibility that Bush is completely insane when it quotes his old pal saying Bush believes "we're routing them" and that "...we're doing 10 times better than everybody else perceives." Bush and cognitive dissonance are old drinking buddies.

But if we don't enforce anti-trust legislation now on the books, and if we continue to reward mass media trash purveyors for their criminality by supporting their sponsors, we're on track to withdraw completely from the fact-based world and live in some demented fantasy version of fortress America.

And another two-sentence post turns into a novella.


wp

[Breeze54]

2. I feel the same... at least with most of what you wrote.

I feel your pain and sadness and weariness. :hug:

It's getting harder and harder every day to trudge through it all.

I've been resisting apathy though. It isn't easy but I'm trying to hang on.

Thanks for writing this and sharing it!

I haven't posted my attempts to express my feelings about it all... yet.

I gravitate to having to many expletives and to much screaming... seriously.

:kick: & Recommended

[JeffR]

3. The election is about the occupation of Iraq

- It's a crime against humanity and a signal to the world that our foreign policy is not merely self-serving, but dangerously insane.

- It prevents any meaningful progress in fighting poverty, homelessness, hunger, lack of healthcare, lack of work, a faulty education system on the home front.

Everything revolves around this "war". Senator Clinton's record on Iraq troubles me too, deeply.

[Bonobo]

4. Thanks, that is so true about how it halts all else.

Even from a strictly financial POV, it is sucking everything out of us and making progress impossible.

It is sucking away all of our children's lives as well.

I was talking to my son today about where maybe he might want to move to in the future...

I told him that the Denmark, Holland, Iceland area might not be bad. They sure seem to get high marks for treating each other and the environment well. Oh, also not fucking massacreing large populations of HUMAN BEINGS.

Maybe I'll move to one of those nice places that wouldn't incarcerate my ass for smoking a fucking plant. That's a reasonable policy. Not incarcerating a man for smoking a little plant, I mean. Oh, and by the way, Bill Clinton put way more people in prison for smoking that little plant than any president EVER! Another reason I could do without Hil...

[JeffR]

5. Roger that

But then today we're supposed to believe that the senator is running on her record, not her huband's. And tomorrow through some sleight-of-hand the word will be that she's campaigning on the legacy of 1992-2000. It's so hard to keep up.

[Usrename]

6. At least somebody is paying attention.

It doesn't look like there will be any chance for a new path. We can either maintain the status quo, or try and return to the Reagan glory days. Those are the only choices we have been given.

[AllyCat]

7. Agree with you completely.

My husband and I listen to the Dem candidates, start to get swayed by one opinion/policy or another...then realize we are in this frickin' mess because of the stupid war!!! Then we realize we are voting anti-war and that's it. We support Kucinich most, but realize where things are likely headed there. We'll vote for him in the primary, but by the time it gets to our state, most of everything will be decided. So...we have already decided that we will end up voting for the person most likely to beat HRC in our state. That's a horrible way to look at an election.

Husband is a recovering Republican who still can't stand either Clinton and won't vote for HRC. Her position on the war (in Iraq and potentially in Iran) is not good. Just can't vote for someone who supports it the way she does. I cannot ever remember being this "against" a Dem candidate. We want this war to end ASAP and it's not going to happen with any of the Big 3 as soon as it needs to happen. However, I will vote for the one who is MOST anti-war. If the GE comes down to HRC and a Repuke, they will be equally pro-war and there is no point in voting. (SCOTUS be damned)

[JAbuchan08]

8. By 2008 I was voting for Hillary n/t