neo-neocon » Blog Archive » Forgetting Pearl Harbor: the giant…

What I can’t figure out is this- How can it be that this war is simultaneously so bad we should pull out, but so nothing that no one at home is involved/sacrificing for the war? How can it be both ways?

I’ll never understand the ‘American public”.

So long as America (steve) believes that we will win easily or just in the end, grackle, then they are just going to cruise on as if nothing is going to happen. It is this notion, psychological belief, that must be undermined. Madrid didn’t undermine this, because, Madrid was in Spain. Just like the Cole, somewhere other than america. What people don’t see, they don’t believe.

If you don’t believe your life is at risk, grackle, then you are not going to be paying attention to much of anything except entertainment. When Americans start dying off in droves in American cities, then people will start to realize that they might be next.

I used to think so too but the ability of people like Steve to rationalize away such events is truly impressive. If subsequent attacks in Madrid, London and various foiled attacks have done nothing to change those minds – further attacks in the US won’t either. The Steves of the world will continue to make excuses.

Besides, the problem of who to retaliate against remains. Bombs, nuclear or otherwise, or more anthrax will be impossible to trace – the more so because our FBI and CIA are ineffectual and seem to follow their own political goals.

Sure, we would know who probably gave the stuff to the terrorists but Steve and his ilk would never accept anything but a US justice system level of proof – so no retaliation would ever be possible.

As for the oil, we had shortages imposed during the Carter years and nothing was done. At that time the oil exporting countries bought the US economy to its knees and there was NO retaliation, even of an economic nature, much less military.
 

Will is vital, and there’s no question that a sizeable portion of the American population doesn’t have it. Still, many of us do.

But I have to disagree with the second part of your statement. The “current generation” is actually on the ground and shedding blood in Iraq. The Iraq Surrender Group is made up of elderly lawyers, politicians, and diplomats, and doesn’t represent the current generation.

I think it is more like, if you kill enough Irais and Arabs that the Americans don’t care about, the Americans will pull back into their fortress and worry about themselves first.

The thing you have to remember about WWII, Neo, is that people could know whether victory or defeat was close by, by casualty lists and whether a battle was won or lost, territory gained or won. In a guerrila war as with Iraq, that doesn’t seem very clear. I mean, the US won all the battles so far, and yet we have violence every day, but we control all the territory, but and but and but. The human mind is not wired for this kind of fight and flight, fight then flight then fight then flight then fight schism. Because it pulls you from one way to the other, and eventually you will shred.

One part of your mind says you are winning. No attacks, US soldiers winning battles, etc. Other side of your brain sees you are losing, loss of support, violence, more violence, American deaths, demoralizing stories, etc.

I’ve mentioned this before of course, but the agony of defeat in WWII or even the threat of it, actually galvanized morale and support. You don’t have that now, because America itself is not being attacked and the world doesn’t “look” like the terroists are gaining ground. The terroists don’t invade countries, yet their end result Paris riots might just as well be the same. But this is not apparent because the media obfuscates the issues. So the population of America looks at the war with WWII eyes, when times have changed. Times may have changed but the Times has not.

If you want resolve, Neo. Then you will need to see at least one major American city be obliterated, casualties amongst the 1 to 10 million range. That is resolve.

I think you know that the loss of the Pacific Fleet left the entire Western seaboard of America open to Japanese invasion. It was a palpable sense of dread and DEFEAT, the idea that you could lose. You NEED that for resolve. In Iraq, the idea that we will lose, is not there, but the idea that we “aren’t winning” is there. So it creates friction. The friction of war, just in a rather unconventional war.