Except for the tragedies suffered by the 9-11 families, none of us have ever experienced the gore, heartbreak and cruelty of war in our own hometowns. No one living here in America has seen anything even vaguely resembling the horrors of the Dresden firebombing or the Hiroshima nuclear attack or Baghdad after Shock and Awe.
None of us have ever seen our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities in flames while we scramble among the ruins of, say, Chicago or Reno, desperately looking for food.
However, Ritter's comment got me thinking. Even though they have never experienced its devastating effects, Americans ARE completely familiar with war. And they love it!
How do I know all about this hidden, dark side of the American psyche? Am I a clinical psychologist? Do I work for the National Security Agency spying on people's e-mails? No.
I watch television. I go to the movies.
If Americans didn't like torture and grim cruelty and murder and gore, why would CSI be our most popular television program? Why can we bet good money (and win almost every time) that the number one box office smash this week will be a film that involves the evisceration of at least ten people?
In the movies and on TV, Americans are encouraged and TAUGHT to love brutality, murder and war. And they are fast learners. If they weren't, we would all refuse to watch Law and Order SVU and Veronica Mars and all start watching Masterpiece Theater and Barney instead.
My solution? Easy. Let's demand a law requiring that every movie that shows violence on-screen be given an "X" rating. And NO violence on television. EVER.
PS: If America wants to experience war in its own back yard, the idiots in the White House will give us that chance UNLESS WE PUT THEM IN JAIL IMMEDIATELY. GWB is actually planning to bomb Iran!
When (not if) Bush blows up Iran, Iran will retaliate and blow up Israel -- and then all hell will break loose in the Middle East. And what's to keep the war from migrating here? Nothing. To quote Seymour Hersh, "A retired four-star general told me that, despite the eight thousand British troops in the region, 'the Iranians could take Basra with ten mullahs and one sound truck.'" And then the insurgents will move here.
Get this straight, America. The Bush crazies actually WANT a war on our soil. Why? Who knows what goes on in the brains of madmen. Perhaps they are dreaming of Armageddon. Or maybe they just want to rule a chaotic world from their bunkers. In either case, we are screwed.
If, in the next three months, Bush isn't wearing an orange jump suit, America had better learn to love war even more than they do right now -- because, if Bush has his way, it will soon be coming to a back yard near you!
