aegyptos

Chance to kill some real ****ing assholes?

Awesome!

I'm not saying it's good, but using the argument that if we had any awareness from history, learned any lessons from history, we might want to consider intervening now? versus waiting until it's completely out of hand. That's all.

You would think that this generation today would understand that. For example during the island hopping campaign to stop Japan thousands of U.S. soldiers died. Do you think this generation could handle that on the news each night. Probably not and our commanders after each island chain invasion would be before congress explaining why their strategy isn't working in my opinion due to all the carnage.

The mothers of america would be on the nighly news and each anchor would be questioning the methods of our commanders and probably questioning the validity of the war itself just like today, because today we are only working with a fraction of the lives lost in an war that is still undecided just like WW2 was during all of the campaigns to win it.

Bodhisattva

How many Iranians do you know then?

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Bodhisattva

Couldn't agree more. The media should be tried for treason... almost.

Could you imagine WWII fought today with our current media? In some ways it would be good... but in many ways, especially if the threat was real, it would seriously impede our ability to kick the **** outa the enemy.

I think that real Americans like me, and many many others, would gladly take up arms to fight off some bastard nation that was trying to take over the world and kill our children... but there are so many damn appeasers out there that would use propoganda and the media would embrace that for ratings, much to their detriment in the long run.

Awesome!

That's what I'm wrestling with at the moment: Does this generation just have too much information and could we of ended WW2 in 5 years with the level of information we have now like we had back then? or would each engagement be scrutinized on national television spinned to the point of polarizing the nation similar to what we have now?

Did the men really know in WW2 on the landing craft that the Japanese had their mortars zeroed in on them, machine guns etc. or did we tell them that our heavy guns on the ships softened the enemy up? Were these men really that idealistic about what had to be done then requiring them to suffer such huge losses in the name of preserving freedom, or would they think twice if they were in the computer room of their ship seeing the news spin that our commanders should adopt a bombing strategy because there were too many casualties assaulting the beaches and congress was going to have a hearing on that?

Bodhisattva

Well said...

Naïve versus Jaded

PeteEU

Well if a NATION attacked the US and there was a real war, then I suspect that the media would put in place a huge self censorship system, and if not, the US government would attempt to control the flow of information as it did in WW2 even at the cost of civil liberties.. its was done once and will be done again.

Now the issue here would be if the partisan bloggers on both sides would "behave", and what impact the Internet would have. One way would be to cut the internet off, something the US can do if it wants.

The problem with wars like the Iraq war (or Vietnam) is that no one really understood why it was needed, and the explanations of why, have been slowly pulled apart as falsehoods. Now during WW2, there was no doubt.. Japan attacked the US. Germany attacked France, Poland and so on. It was pretty much black and white. The Iraq war was very much grey, and that makes it much harder to not only accept, but to justify especially when it goes bad.

When push comes to crunch, most nations like most tribes, will band together to fight off an enemy.

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PeteEU

Awesome!

I believe that we already have a huge censorship in place right now and that we don't have all the facts that contribute to our governments decision making process. Were not in the Pentagon, or Langley, or the White House. We can't possibly know all the facts that lead to the decisions being made, and I would argue that if we did have all the facts we may understand why our government does what is does.

If losing 400,000 soldiers in WW2 is acceptable and 50-70 million total is acceptable then a fraction of that is acceptable in Iraq in my opinion.

Hatuey

The media didn't mess up this war for us. Fighting under false pretenses did. Entering a completely unnecessary war based on lies, excuse me, 'misinformation' ruined it for us. Not the media. The U.S. had a legitimate excuse for going into WWII. Can you say the same about Iraq? Did we find out the Japanese attacked us because we were covertly killing their children? Our decision to enter WWII was based on A) the fact that we were attacked and B) Hitler was an actual threat. What member of the current administration can say with a straight face they didn't know Saddam Hussein was about as much a threat as any other 5th rate dictator? None. The Iraq War was an avoidable mistake and this has only become more and more obvious after 5 years of it. We've been in the wrong from day one. Fighting under a 'what if' paper thin justification.

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Is Intolerant Because He Won't Let The Intolerant Run Other People's Lives.

Awesome!

I'm not saying the media messed up the war. I'm arguing that if the generation of WW2 had the same information, maybe enlightened like our heady 60's folk or generation of today would we of been able to accomplish the task in WW2 like we did?

Misinformation, o.k. but in my opinion better to caution on the side of error. It's a catch 22 in my opinion because we are going to be in that part of the world either now or later due to Iran making moves or Iraq eventually making moves just like Hitler in the 1930's. It's not a thin line. It's a reality which the Bush admin is tuned into and hopefully Obama or McCain will be as well. Proliferation is a real threat.

You could argue that Japanese attacked us because Commodore Perry forced direct trade with Japan modernizing the nation as well as her military, and when she wanted to expand, Britain and U.S. said no and then WW2 in the pacific. Bush's strategy now is better than Roosevelt's Bungling or lack of awareness in the 1930's in my opinion.