Dear Joe Six Pack-
I know that it is hard for you to picture the USA as the bad guy, but I want you to try…just for a moment.
Think back to what you learned in history class about the Revolutionary War. Remember how the Brits payed off informants, how they controlled the courts, and who was in each governor’s mansion? Remember how the police worked for and were trained by the Brits? And remember how the Americans responded? Instead of fighting by the rules, they made sneak attacks from the woods. They committed sabotage. They used the sympathies of the population and their superior familiarity with the geography to harass the British until they finally couldn’t take the trickle of casualties and the huge expense of occupying the colonies? Now, read the following:
BAGHDAD, Oct. 20 — The men gathered in the evening at the schoolyard to execute their attack. By the time they finished, at least seven rockets had crashed down nearly four miles away inside the American military headquarters compound in Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding at least 38 other people, according to U.S. soldiers.
From the courtyard of his concrete-barricaded garrison in southwestern Baghdad that evening, Lt. Col. Patrick Frank heard the distinctive sound of rocket fire. He hurried inside his command office to flat-screen panels displaying aerial imagery to pinpoint the launch site.
Within minutes, his cellphone began ringing. Several Iraqi informants told him the attack had originated near the decrepit school in al-Amil, recalled Frank, the battalion commander in the neighborhood. His sources agreed on another thing, too, he said: “There were several Iraqi police vehicles spotted leaving the scene.”
Now, I’m not saying the that the people that launched these rocket attacks are good people or that the people that were killed and injured are bad people. I’m just saying that the American troops in Iraq are in the same situation that the Brits were in during the Revolutionary War. The Brits won almost every battle, but they couldn’t overcome the myriad obstacles that faced them.
A healthy amount, perhaps a majority, of the American public were loyal to the British crown. But that didn’t mean a whole lot for the ultimate outcome, did it?
And, even though the Americans kicked the British out it didn’t prevent the Brits from coming back and invading America again, during the war of 1812. They lost that war, too. And none of it prevented an eventual civil war in this country, as we had, ultimately, to settle our own differences on the battlefield.
So, Mr. Six-Pack, it isn’t that we are the bad guys. It’s that we are the modern day Brits. We will lose this war. And the sooner we realize it, the less it will cost us in lives and treasure.
Sincerely,
Boo
Maybe this name isn’t as funny to the Brits as it is to the Americans?
.
Thanks for the essay Boo.
Our fellow Americans killed 49 “criminals” overnight including women and children in Sadr City, Baghdad.
On the northern border: BREAKING NEWS: Dozens die in Turkey border clash
At least 12 Turkish soldiers have been killed following an ambush by Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border – with 23 rebels also killed, officials say. The PKK guerrilla group said it had also taken “several” soldiers hostage.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recalled security officials to Ankara for a crisis meeting.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Yes…the news from Iraq continues to get worse, despite some positive developments in certain areas.
Joe’s attention span, both in history class and today. The letter he’d compose in response would be brief:
“We ain’t the Brits. We can bomb the shit out of ’em and win.”
Joe Sixpack will only turn on Bush when he can’t afford to heat his house and buy that sixpack at the same time.
On second thought, even then he’ll blame the Democratic Congress.
well, I think I created a simple narrative that is familiar to almost all Americans.
…to this the only thing I could add is that, Joe Sixpack will only believe what the media tells him to believe…..that is the only way that Joe can live and do what he normally would do in the course of one day at a time living. Joe has no mind to think for himself. Joe has no mind to do research or do any reading of history or books that tell him different views. He just takes it for absolute truth what he is told. He is too lazy to do things for himself and the media knows this. The Joe and Janes of this era are just too, well for the sake of saying things that might get me into deep doo doo, are just to damn busy to do much for this research of what is really happening…..like playing golf or hunting or going to the local bar to have communion with the friends that think like they do.
They just have to go to work and make more money to be like the Jones next door in the neighborhood. They are way to busy to notice that their right are being infringed upon by government. Just as long as the government lets them do what they want to do on a daily basis, then they are very happy to be left alone. Watch all the TV news that is being proped to us, as the celebs are saying things that they say.
Nine times out of ten, most Americans have not even set foot in DC to see how government works, let along their own government of said state of which they reside. They just go on assuming every damn day of their life that they and their neighbors will be doing the same thing over and over as the years go by…not noticing that things are a changing in front of their own noses….but hell they are catching the biggest fish in the damn dirty pond full of contaminates the air that they breathe are just full of carcinogens. What the hell, they are getting big bucks for going to work every day and building bigger and more homes or driving the biggest and largest gas guzzling suvs ever. Ive noticed more humvees on the road than I ever thought could furnish the army of well off….just because they are making a statement. Well……..Joe, get a brain and think for yourself, man oh man, what a hard thing for him to do…
It’s easy to feel cynical, but the people, including a lot of Joe Six Packs, stomped the GOP last fall. They do pay some attention. Not enough, and often for the wrong reasons, but this is the best system of government (elections) in the end.
People are busy. And they don’t have much time or inclination to fact-check the media. But they don’t trust the media either.
Well, boo, it was the public wanting to get the hell out of Iraq that steered the 06 election…..and now they [congress] are/is sticking their tongue out at us for electing the dems,,, or what is going on nowadays…ie, schip, war, election control, wage fixing, you name it. The perplexment now is who to blame for this utter dysfunctional system we are dealing with now. I am sitting here listening to Hill on c-span giving her spiel on her health care benefits, she sure does sound good, however, it is the undercurrent that she is not telling us all of how she is gonna do this fix….it is such a shame that anyone can not define it simply and rework it simply. I do not trust her and I suppose I am one of the women who will not vote for her in the primary.
You see it is just that simple, ppl just assume she is telling the truth. She is coming off great…I too want to jump and down with joy listening to her…but for gawds sake, lets get down right ready for the flim flam of the whole stance,. I just do not trust her and her likes…she is the dlc and I do not trust them and her likes. Now that is just me but I think from what I am reading and listening to, she is just saying words like we all want to hear, but will not ever happen, ever….she praises the VA system, and in many ways they do work some better but for a select few, not an entire nation and they do not level the ground for us to do this change. This will be a humongous thing to change in many ppls minds…she wants us to ahve the selection of our coverage in health insurance, well for gawds sake, we are getting ripped of they that industry..we need to get rid of it for the sake of all Americans not just the wealthy who can afford this and can I or should I go forth with more….I think you nor any one else would like that either. The gov either has to stop riding the fence on this matter by steadily going for more insurance regs or give us all socialized med..it is not both…that will not work..not for all, only for a select few. I simply can not afford the insurance coverage that they are constantly changing at my workplace. It is costing more for less coverage. sickening for sure! Oh well, I am just rambling on..I suppose I need to STFU and not open my mouth. ;o(
she’s developed as a GREAT politician, no doubt about it.
That’s the good news/bad news thing about her isn’t it..a Politician with a Capitol P instead of becoming a statesperson or a true leader. I know if I didn’t know better that I could be seduced by some of her speeches and how she answers questions put to her.
Excuse me for interrupting, but it’s mysterious to me that people in the US believe they won the War of 1812. Check any nonpropaganda history book, or even Wikipedia. You’ll find that the US started the war by invading Canada, with dreams of annexation. The attack on Washington D.C. was in retaiatation for the burning of Toronto. But it seems that people in the US need to see themselves ether as innocent victims, or as winners — preferably both at the same time.
In the words of Pierre Berton, in his two-part history of the War of 1812: The Invasion of Canada and Flames Across the Border:
“Having won the last battle, the Americans were convinced that they won the War of 1812. Having stemmed the tide of invasion and kept the Americans out of their country, Canadians believed that they won the war. Having ceded nothing they considered important, the British were serene in the conviction that they won it…. The three nations… were beggared by the conflict, their people bereaved, their treasuries emptied, their graveyards crowded. In North America, the charred houses, the untended farms, the ravaged fields along the border left a legacy of bitterness and distrust….
“The war helped set the two countries on different courses. National characteristics were evolving: American ebullience, Canadian reserve. The Americans went wild over minor triumphs, the Canadians remained phlegmatic over major ones…. American hero worship filled the Congress, the Senate and the state legislatures…. The quality of boundless enthusiasm, which convinces every American school child that the United States won the war, is not a Canadian trait. We do not venerate winners…..
“The war helped entrench certain words in the national lexicon and certain attitudes in the national consciousness…. Freedom had a special meaning, too: it meant freedom from the United States….
“Thus the war that was supposed to attach the British North American colonies to the United States accomplished exactly the opposite. It ensured that Canada would never become part of the Union to the south. Because of it, an alternative form of democracy grew… in the northern half of the continent. The Canadian ‘way’ — so difficult to define except in terms of negatives — has its roots in the invasion of 1812-14, the last American invasion of Canada. There can never be another.”
US self-delusion goes a long way back.
Here’s a link to the Canadian point of view:
War of 1812
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008442
It’s not that we won the war of 1812. It’s that we did not lose our independence. Your points are valid points.
Dear Joe 6-pack:
First of all, you’re probably an alcoholic because you’ve got a crappy job, crappy housing, you work too many hours without a vacation and you have little or no health insurance.
Secondly, the USA is the bad guy.
Peace
Bravo Booman, a great analogy – finally put in print.
Well said — and I think Joe Six-Pack actually does know this — and wants the whole mess over with. He doesn’t like the idea the US didn’t win, but he sees no reason to throw more good younger cousins after his nephew who came back with his head messed up. It is only his other cousin, the bully who always blamed the other guy and couldn’t hold a job who still believes in Bush’s war.