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I’ve noticed a sentiment appearing in a few places that has me a bit puzzled. That sentiment is that discussion about the war on Iraq, and any pro-peace discussion, is somehow insulting to the people participating in the fighting, and that it is no longer appropriate. People who originally seemed open minded about the war, and willing to discuss anti-war options in an intelligent manner now seem reluctant to do so. I see people closing the comments on their blogs and discussion boards, and MTV Europe is, _under mandate_ from the “ITC”:http://www.itc.org.uk/index.asp, “censoring their playback of music videos”:http://www.drownedinsound.com/article.php?id=6474 that contain “representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home” due to “heightened sensitivity.”

Its been explained to me that it insults the soldiers and their families to suggest that they don’t need to be there, that they are risking their lives for nothing. What puzzles me though is that it doesn’t seem to be insulting for us to stand by and say, “You just stay out there in the desert risking your life, until we tell you to come back.” If someone is out in the desert waiting to die, and you believe that they shouldn’t have to be there, then it is your duty as a compassionate human being to do everything in your power to get them out of there. War is not a time to _stop_ struggling for peace, its a time to struggle even harder.

There seems to be a rationalization for war that follows the conceptual line of, “The soldiers are brave and strong, and they are willing to die to protect us! We should respect that courage by sending them out to fight.” I seem to hear this all the time. I took a class recently with a guy in the Army Reserves. He was dreading a war. He didn’t want to go out and be expected to kill, and possibly be killed. His sentiment seems to be common. The soldiers might be willing, which is admirably courageous, but most of them probably don’t _want_ to be out there. What about their families and friends? Do you think the mother’s of those soldiers want them out in the desert rather than back at home? I seriously doubt it.

War is hell. If you don’t believe that then you have watched too many Clint Eastwood movies, and haven’t read enough about Vietnam, World Wars I and II, Hiroshima, the Serbian conflict, and thousands of other bloody, hellish conflicts. When you resign yourself to war, and agree to be complacent and let it go on as long as the president pleases, then you are condemning those soldiers you claim to be ‘honoring’ to a hateful life in the desert. You treat them like expendable thugs when you say, “I’m not going to bother arguing for peace anymore, I’m going to just let you stay out there.”

I can’t stand hearing all the, “Lets not say anything bad about the war, we have to be sensitive” talk out there right now. Anyone who respects human life will do whatever they can to prevent war. Even those who believe war is necessary to deal with Saddam should agree that ending the war in the fastest way, by whatever means, be it victory in battle or some democratic end, is the most sane and preferable solution, and that discussing ways to end the war, including democratic ‘pro-peace’ solutions, should be a priority. War is not a time to stop trying to end it.

There is a bunch of Columbia debris on ebay right now. I’m not going to link to any of it, because I don’t want to dignify it like that. First off, its kind of gross that people find the debris, and then the first thing that runs through their mind is “Ah, I can profit from the misery of others!” Its not a tragedy, its an opportunity! An opportunity for PROFIT! Fortunately it seems like ebay is pulling many of the auctions. Technically, the debris is owned by NASA, and they need it back. They need the debris to try to figure out exactly how the explosion occurred, so they can prevent it for future missions. This is the first mission they’ve lost during reentry, and its vital that they figure out what went wrong, so that the remaining 3 shuttles can be used without fear of a repeat incident. Oh, and if you haven’t heard already, the reason this is all an issue is because Spaceshuttle Columbia exploded on reentry this morning over Texas. Seven crewmembers, including the first Israeli astronaut, were killed. It was the second shuttle destroyed during a mission, the first being Challenger in 1986.

In other news, today was a nice day, so we scooted to the zoo, then to buy groceries and stuff. It was quite pleasant.

I highly recommend that everyone go and watch this video (Realplayer required) about the Japanese internment camps during the 40s. The film was produced in 1944 by the US government, as an attempt to explain to people why the camps are necessary, and what they are like. In short, it is blatant propaganda.

The announcer cheerfully notes that these people aren’t under any suspicion, but need to be ‘evacuated’ due to military hazards. Throughout the film, it refers to the people in the camps as ‘evacuees,’ noting that they aren’t prisoners (which is strange, since they weren’t allowed to leave…). A shot pans across the camp, showing barbed wire fences and gun-toting military police, “The wire fences and military police are just artifacts of the military nature of the evacuation,” the announcer adds, as if that is supposed to make you feel a lot better about it.

Throughout the video, think about how you feel. It feels good. You see the people farming, as the announcer notes how skilled they are. You see them playing softball, how fun! Look at them learning new job skills such as farming and machine work, that will give them great job skills for the future! Boy scouts, Christian churches, lots of loyal citizens happy to spend some time in an evacuation camp in order to aid the war effort. How wholesome.

It almost makes you forget how horribly disgusting the whole thing was. Almost, but not quite. That little part of you that sees through the propaganda in the film, keep that part honed! Its easy to see through it when we watch the film almost 60 years later, but when you see things like it today, its much harder to detect.

This post caused me to laugh out loud. Way to go Josh, stick it to those damn limeys! You know, many lingustics researchers believe that ‘American English’ is actually closer in accent to the original English that was spoken before the colonies started, and that British began to change their accent after the revolutionary war as a way to distance themselves from the ‘rabble’ over in America, choosing instead to exaggerate the aristocratic ‘style’ of speech that we now know of as ‘British English’.

Of course, that might just be a wild theory set in motion by rabid anti-british factions. Maybe we are just rabble! No! No! Its not true, damn the limey and their lecherous language! Next time a british person tells me that they want to put their “spare tyre” into my boot, I’m going to run away screaming.