blacksundae

MetaFilter’s billyfleetwood posted an absolutely wonderful comment today. Here’s a snippet, but you should probably read the rest of the thread for context.

Nobody trains their kids to be killers. Your hyperbole shows an astounding and dare I say juvenile lack of understanding of the world, and the people in it. People raise their children to believe in things outside of themselves. Family, community, country, tradition. People raise their children to believe in simple things like right and wrong, good and bad. and you know what? There is a great benefit to us all in people raising their children to believe in such things.

So sure, we could ask hundreds of thousands of young men and women to follow your lead, abandon their trust in their communities, their country and their traditions. We could raise our children to believe in noone but themselves. We could stop telling our kids that Being President is a noble aspiration, that the word “leader” is a word we reserve for the best and brightest.

We could stop teaching kids that they shouldn’t take their privileges for granted, and that under no circumstances does freedom require sacrifice.

Or we could continue teaching them all of those things, and instead of cynicism, demand that the the few people we choose to lead us not shit on those beliefs, misrepresent that truth and send our kids off to kill and be killed for profit, politics and a misguided sense of personal glory.

The thread. Made me kinda misty.

Reuters:

John Cusack is outraged over the Iraq war, so the U.S. actor channeled his anger into a low-budget political satire — complete with a chorus line of scantily clad female amputees — that he hopes will offend.

Inspired by anger about the war and questions about the political power held by global corporations, “War, Inc” is set in Turaqistan, a fictional nation occupied by a private U.S. company called Tamerlane and run by a former American vice president.

Link!

I thought it was bad back in the 1980s when the Reagan Republicans sold weapons to the enemy. Now the Bush Republicans have given innovative warcraft another twist by bribing the enemy into not attacking.

The so-called Surge of 2007 was billed as an increase in troops in Iraq designed to reduce the out-of-control violence. But the biggest part of the plan involves bribing Sunni Muslim insurgents into not attacking. Approximately 70,000 of them are being paid $10 per day to hang around, armed, keeping the peace.

So in addition to the bizarrely ginormous cost of the war, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people killed, now we’re spending over a quarter billion more per year to create another militia that, no doubt, will eventually turn around and bite us, just like militias (excuse me - freedom fighters) we’ve created elsewhere.