"I support the troops, but I don't want to see them dying on my t.v."

[Philosoraptor]

HBO is showing a documentary, "Baghdad E.R.", and the "critics" say it hurts the war effort and is nothing but liberal propaganda that hurts the troops and the war effort.

The war supporters don't mind it if their taxes are going to war, and they don't mind if a few thousand soldiers are hurt or killed, but don't dare offend them with messy, icky images of soldiers wounded and dying, that would be too much for us to see.

What utter crap.

[bluerum]

1. I think that's called denial.

[babylonsister]

2. I wish every American in this country was forced to see

"Baghdad ER". That might change some hearts and minds. Oh, and screw the critics.

[shadowknows69]

7. Exactly. Unfortunately because it's on HBO

It may not reach John Q who wants to go have a beer with the President and who is living just below that "upper tier of cable" financial threshhold. $60 a month for TV is nothing to sneeze at. This should be re-aired on public television. I don't have HBO myself but not sure if I could force myself to watch it if I did and being that I don't support the war I'm not sure I should have to. Every member of congress or the senate that enabled this shit should be strapped down "Clockwork Orange" style and forced to view it multiple times.

[The2ndWheel]

12. So then a message of anti-war and non-violence

just doesn't work? Time to force them against their will into a chair to make them get it?

[shadowknows69]

16. You tell me?

has it been working? I hate war because I understand the horror of it. I haven't come to that understanding through personal experience but through reading about and listening to others that have. Somehow I doubt a good number of Americans give serious thought to the costs of these military crusades they are disciplined to cheer on. The one lesson the military did learn from Vietnam is to clean up the war footage. Where in Vietnam we had our boys dying before our eyes every night, Gulf War 1 and the sham of coverage Iraq has received brought us war as a video game. With smart bombs, night vision, low casualty counts (in comparison), and masterfully censored "embedded reporters" giving us the war closer than ever before. Yeah right.

[Guaranteed]

3. Yeah, the producers responded that if people don't see this

aspect of the war, how will they understand what "heroism" is?

I thought that was brilliant. Very tongue-in-cheek.

[dogday]

4. There is a cost and a price to pay

when one goes to war, and if people are going to support the effort, they need to see first hand what they are supporting.... This is a wrong war and it is about time people realized it... Seeing kids lose their legs and arms, well that is the cost of it...

[Lars39]

5. I grew up watching dying and injured troops on the 6 o'clock news

every night.

[Bjornsdotter]

11. Yep, me too

And for a long time I couldn't watch the news without getting sick. The news from Vietnam used to give me nightmares as a kid.

Cheers

[LynneSin]

6. I watched it last night but had to turn it off after awhile

Only because I was crying way too much and couldn't handle it anymore. Thank you HBO for putting this out there. It needs to be shown

[paparush]

8. Great Point on NPR this morning - Bush** doesn't want flag-draped coffins

but he sure as hell wants MASSIVE MEDIA COVERAGE when/if troops start coming home. Complete with flags waving and tears flowing, lots of hugs and little kiddies.

You can bet these images will be splayed over every screen, magazine, and newspaper.

[TahitiNut]

9. "You can't handle the truth!!"

It's no accident that so many combat veterans become peace advocates. Some 'Amurikuns' seem to think they know what it's like in a combat zone - since they watched "Green Berets" or even "Saving Private Ryan." What a stupid utter fucking delusion! They haven't the foggiest! The depth and breadth of such ignorance, and the ignorance of the ignorance itself, is literally unfathomable. One would think it'd be a slight clue that even after weeks, months or years of preparation and indoctrination, the first-hand reality is so psychologically traumatic that many are affected for the rest of their lives. That such people can pretend to portray 'concern' for the imaginary 'pain' of a blastocyst or a brain-dead woman, and wallow in endless hours of bodice-ripping, and be so utterly and completely devoid of any comprehension of the hell of combat is stunning in its hypocrisy.

[shadowknows69]

10. K&R

more people need to know about this series. Trick a freeper into watching it if you can.

[GoldenOldie]

13. Anyone remember the long running "M.A.S.H." now in re-runs?

I was employed as a civilian analyst at the US Army Hospital at Ft Huachuca during the time that M.A.S.H.. series was being filmed and televised. Our Army Hospital was often used as a source for consultation on authenticity of battle field operations for these medical units, as Klinger's cousin was the MAJ in charge of military personnel operations and the majority of the military docs, nurses, medics, had served in field hospitals in VietNam. Having the good fortune to have worked and played with these outstanding group of professionals, I sometimes got a small glimpse of what they had endured and understood that at times their morbid sense of humor was a way of dealing with those memories that would never leave them.

The actual on-site documentary of a real M.A.S.H. Unit is what you didn't get to see during the TV show with Hawkeye, Radar, Klinger, etc., the actual destruction of the human body, the fight to keep them alive and the real affect on those who struggle to mentally deal with what they do and see.

If you haven't the guts to look at what has been done in our name, than you have no right to damn/condemn those who dare to stand and speak against those that created and profited from it.

[Philosoraptor]

14. I thought of M.A.S.H. when I watched it, but there were no laughs.

It really should be on prime time on NBC, yeah right, in another universe maybe, where things make sense.

[gratuitous]

15. Don't they want to see what they bought?

I mean, when I spend my money for something, I want to see (at least) what I bought. A lot of my tax dollars are being spent (against my express will) for these elective invasions. I want everyone to see what they're money is buying.

The poor, steely-eyed, real he-men of the hawk brigades! A little of the reality they've pursued so assiduously comes down the pike, and they turn into jelly-kneed whiny-ass titty babies. Nuts to that, says I! Take a good, hard, long look at what you wanted. The mangled, maimed and dead. They're all yours, Donald, Dick, George, Douglas, Ann, Michelle, Chris, Gordon, Rush, et al.

[supernova]

17. War supporters demand to live in their own little plastic bubble world

Where they get to choose who lives and quality of life in-between, but they don't want to be show the consequences of their selfish behavior.

Horrible. Horrible.

[Philosoraptor]

18. Dead soldiers on t.v. helped end the Vietnam war

I remember, right about dinner time, every night.

[tabasco]

19. It's no secret to these assholes that soldiers are getting maimed.

They have made utterly pathetic attempts to downplay the carnage that is happening in Iraq.

Like Delay comparing Baghdad to Houston. These people are sick!!

They fall into three groups as I see it:

1. People like Delay who are profiting directly or indirectly from the war, and place more value on that than the lives of soldiers.

2. People who have no other source of pride in their lives, who gain pride by seeing their country blow up third-world countries. They say "my country is kicking ass so I mudst be superior.!" They have no other source of pride in their miserable lives and love to watch war on TV. That is more important to them than the lives of the soldiers.

3, The truly delusional kool-aid drinkers who actually believe the war is a just war and we are "fighting for our freedom." LMAO. This is a pretty small group IMO. Less morally reprehensible than the other two groups but still all kinds of fkkked up.