<p><i just=“” think=“” that=“” both=“” parties=“” use=“” the=“” military=“” to=“” irritatingly=“” large=“” degrees.=“”></i></p><i just=“” think=“” that=“” both=“” parties=“” use=“” the=“” military=“” to=“” irritatingly=“” large=“” degrees.=“”>
<p>True.</p>
</i>
<p>
Is that what those soldiers were doing? Or are they just not as smart as you, not nuanced enough to figure out the big joke?</p>
<p>What was the joke, btw?</p>
<p>that bush is so stupid that we still in iraq and doing poorly there, too bad that is just sad</p>
<p>please, driver, this all you got? a bad joke that was told poorly by a former soldier?</p>
<p>wow…btw, chaos reigns in iraq, what a mess, guess that is okay with some posters here</p>
<p>
If not a cultural critic you are clearly a poet CGM! …I was moved.</p>
<p>I hadn’t thought of it that way…what’s next…Bush-rage Haiku? It all makes so much sense now.</p>
<p>One foot two foot red foot blue foot…
There can never be enough nuance.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’m following you here, because it seems that your comment’s a bit different from what kluge [ed. note: wrong name before…] had stated, but…</p>
<p>Yes. The troops are making a statement that advances their interests, at least to a minor degree. Let’s not forget that the military is a very large and fairly well-organized interest group.</p>
<p>Bush is so stupid
that we still in Iraq
and doing poorly there
too bad that is just sad</p>
<p>Please, driver, this all you got?
a bad joke that was told poorly
by a former soldier?</p>
<p>Wow…chaos reigns in Iraq
what a mess
guess that is ok with some posters here.
Hmmmm…</p>
<p>The comment to which you refer was addressed to Kluge, Ari. Are you really suggesting that the banner was a top-down military operation?</p>
<p>Either way, I think the point stands. But thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>
I know what you mean! Those troops are exploiting their service in Iraq and getting rich! Shame on them!</p>
<p>StickerShock,</p>
<p>I’m assuming that you’re making a jab at my comment because you saw something devious about it, as if I was saying, “those soldiers are being selfish and greedy.” I wasn’t. It was a positive (as opposed to normative) statement. Nothing more. </p>
<p>Soldiers, and more generally the military, are an interest group. I know it’s generally deemed “distasteful” to discuss the military in such basic terms, but it’s true.</p>
<p>Driver - the soldiers are amusing. Tony Snow and George Bush and all the other politicians who crocodile-teared their way through self-righteous demands that Kerry apologize to the poor soldiers he grievously insulted with his flubbed punchline (which the troops never would have heard of absent the self-interested trumpeting of the right wing propaganda machine) are unprincipled slimeballs. If they – or anyone else – want to wrap themselves in the flag by proclaiming that their only motivation this pathetic affair was to defend the poor troops, they’re liars. It’s as simple as that.</p>
<p>
I would say that the troops learned of this before the right wing propaganda machine–it was a completely below-the-radar internet-driven “smart bomb,” as the NY Post put it.</p>
<p>The soldiers heard–you can’t keep them in the dark and feed them BS like mushrooms anymore–and they are smart enough to get ****ed all by themselves. You should join CGM for some poetry workshops to work on your anger management.
I’ll be sure to pass that on to them, I’m sure they’ll appreciate your amusement.</p>
<p>driver,</p>
<p>Regardless, I think you’d agree that the current regime is displaying it shock and horror for not 100% selfless reasons. I think what bugs me about this whole affair isn’t that Kerry said something stupid (are we really shocked?), but that it’s yet another example of politicization of the military for less-than-kosher reasons. </p>
<p>Its ubiquitousness wouldn’t bother me if this had real policy implications. It doesn’t, really. It’s just more hot air from people trying to stay in office/keep their party in office.</p>
<p>Not that that’s bad per se, but it’s tiresome. It’d be nice to hear more about…oh…I dunno…the current account deficit or maybe a real issue.</p>
<p>So you’re telling us that your only motivation in this is to defend the poor troops, Driver? Because the frail kids were just devastated by John Kerry’s mean, mean jibe? Why is my BS meter pegged? I’m not angry - but I am disgusted. Using our troops for political purposes is the essence of contempt for our servicemen and women, and they have been used for that very purpose in this shabby affair.</p>
<p>And might I add that I find your belief that the right wing propaganda machine hasn’t learned how to use the internet to spread its agenda to be, well, touching.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Depends. What if they feel, by proxy, that their interests are met? This is where things get complicated.</p>
<p>Do you know which senator first called for the resignation of Trent Lott as Senate Majority leader after Strom Thurmond’s birthday party, Ari? An outraged guy named Kerry.
<a href=“http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/12/lott.comment/[/url]”>http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/12/lott.comment/</a></p>
<p>The Lott affair was total nonsense, yet it ran for far longer than this little Kerry kerfluffle, thanks to a biased press corps. Once the story was out there, who better to defend the troops from an arrogant elitist slur than the CinC? However, the most devastating riposte was made by those troops with the banner. They’re a lot smarter than Kerry–and anyone who was foolish enough to vote for him.</p>
<p>driver,</p>
<p>I don’t see your point. It was clearly in Bush and the rest of the GOP’s interest to disown Lott. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that I see these things through an almost pure political science/economics lens. Everything has a reason, everything is done rationally.</p>
<p>And I don’t see why the Lott thing shouldn’t have run longer. It was a comment by a major player in the INCUMBENT party. It’s far more important when the people with the keys to power have a rotten egg in their midst than when the party without power does.</p>
<p>
Only because the press wasn’t going to go away without his scalp. Just as the Dems found they had to run from Kerry, despite a sympathetic press corps, once the troops and veterans and their families began to speak out.</p>