I've had it. No more. That's it. I'm a pretty mellow chick these days but I am FUCKING DONE with ill-informed nitwits sending me their jingoistic flag-waving bullshit make-yourself-feel-better "Support Our Troops" emails!
Seriously. I can no longer sit back and just roll my eyes and delete them. This country keeps lying to itself about a war based on lies and I simply can't stand it. As disturbing as it is to hear delusion from political mouths or read about it in opinion polls, some line gets crossed when it comes into my personal inbox - it's like shitting on my porch.
Most of these doozies come from people much older than me and I have not expressed my true rage out of respect for my elders. However, about 10 minutes ago, we reached a tipping point.
Nevermore will I sit by quietly and read these exaggerated iconic bedtime stories that still cling to a WWII-era idea of war. DONE. Every single one is now going to get a personally written response and it certainly won't take long for my address to be removed from certain lists. Who knows? It might even get me on some lists. It might even spark a debate, which would be dandy.
What burns my guts about this isn't the idea that myself and the senders disagree so completely, that is to be expected. Its that assumption that I would receive these with a smile that pisses me off. Um, hi? Have we even met? Holy crap.
So, here's the email that just lit the wick of this flaming rocket rant. It alludes to the photo above (cue sweeping Americana music here):
This statue currently stands outside the Iraqi palace,now home to the 4th Infantry division. It will eventually be shipped home and put in the memorial museum in Fort Hood , TX
"The statue was created by an Iraqi artist named Kalat, who for years was forced by Saddam Hussein to make the many hundreds of bronze busts of Saddam that dotted Baghdad. Kalat was so grateful for the Americans liberation of his country;he melted 3 of the heads of the fallen Saddam and made the statue as a memorial to the American soldiers and their fallen warriors.
Kalat worked on this memorial night and day for several months. To the left of the kneeling soldier is a small Iraqi girl giving the soldier comfort as he mourns the loss of his comrade in arms. Do you know why we don't hear about this in the news? Because it is heart warming and praise worthy.The media avoids it because it does not have the shock effect. But we can do something about it. We can pass this along to as many people as we can in honor of all our brave military who are making a difference. And please pass this on!"
Oh, I'll pass it on alright.
So, I then did some digging and ended up sending this response:
"I did actually see this story, in the Dallas Morning News. The statue was not the artist's idea - Kalat was commissioned by the U.S. Army, specifically Command Sgt. Maj. Charles Fuss who came up the idea to melt down the Saddam heads for materials. As for being "grateful", Kalat's uncle was killed by an American rocket attack and he believes the war is about oil. He definitely is not a fan of the U.S.
Kalat did this for money, as he did willingly for Hussein, because he needs to take care of his family. Period."
I mean it. I've had it. Knock it off.
12 comments:
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Heather, are you forgetting the lessons of 9/11? Don't you realize that 9/11 changed everything?
It's a post-9/11 world. You're still in a pre-9/11 mindset. For instance, you rebutted that nice feel good story about mindless warmongering with facts. Worse, you researched those facts yourself, without even checking to see if said facts would give aid and comfort to the terruhists.
Are you like OBL's girlfriend or something?
BTW: Tom Harkin made a good funny here in Iowa recently. He noted that, during Bush's recent colonoscopy, doctors did not find any polyps or anything else cancerous. They did, however, find two Fox news reporters.
The stinky spam you got almost ruined my mom's homemade chocolate chip cookie! If it weren't for your rant I would have upchucked. You are as good pissed off as when you are funny!
xox
And the thing is that if you asked a kid in Iraq if these e-mails and the stupid yellow ribbon magnets that people put on their SUVs actually make them feel supported the answer would be - NO.
It's reprehensible that young Americans are dying on foreign soil for no real reason other than they are following orders and according to Mitt Romney we have a "volunteer military" and his sons have chosen to pursue different paths. Along with the children of almost all the other people sitting in congress with very few exceptions.
As long as this country continues to go in a direction where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer those volunteers will continue to come from the ranks of the poor and middle class and unfortunately, too many of the e-mail forwarders and ribbon bedecked SUV drivers continue to see that population as nothing more than collaeral damage.
This kind of "patriotism" makes me miss the good ole days of Vietnam where they started every newscast with body counts (where they were referred to as soldiers and not troops) and tape of body bags being loaded onto airplanes to be flown home.
Let's at least get real about it.
Dowdy: Love the Hanks bit - I'm surprised no one else thought of it.
Susie: Amen, sister. Have you noticed those fucking car magnets are always on the biggest gas guzzler of all? Blood for oil, baby.
I love you. You totally rock.
And you can add that to your responses like a movie critic quote. :)
Awwwww! Thanks, Howard! Do I get four stars? Or maybe I'm straight to DVD and located in the "Angry" section of Blockbuster ...
Welcome to the outrage... It's good to have you on board. I'll see you in Gitmo.
My cousin sent me emails all through the last election that she knew I wouldn't agree with. I finally responded to the one she sent me that instructed anyone who "didn't agree with the American way of life" or some such bullshit to "just leave" or "go home" or some other warm fuzzy message.
I wrote her back, & told her that there was no one "American way of life". What is it, pray tell? And who practices it? If ours is it, it's a weird Irish/german Roman Catholic stew that basically means we can consume beer and wine with sauerkraut and corned beef at the same dinner table. And also we were encouraged to work for the government "for the retirement."
There never was this "way of life" she's speaking of, but certainly isn't now, and these people we're telling to "go home"? THEY'RE ALL OF US.
We still talk. I don't get these e-mails anymore. But it'll be interesting to see what happens next election.
Good for you, Laurie! Yes, I'm finding that my Republican family no longer struts their politics with the same confidence they once did.
The closest I came to in-family victory was this exchange with my father:
Me: "Dad, all this stuff that's coming out, I've been telling you this all along."
Dad: "Well, you had more foresight than most people."
Me: "I don't like being smarter than my President. It makes me very nervous."
What makes me nervous is my socks being smarter than my president!
I had it out with one of my aunts a few years ago when she was sending me this kind of crap along with religious propaganda. I finally had enough, did my research on whatever heartwarming war-story of the moment she was promoting, and sent it to her with a strongly worded note to take me out of her loop. Haven't heard from her since and couldn't be happier. Looks like you did me one step better and posted it for all the world to read. Great work!
That BS email about the Kalat statue landed in my Inbox a few minutes ago. I'm not only "replying to all" with the facts, I'm sending my response to every lie propagator in the long list of previous recipients. (*sigh* When will people learn to clean up their forwards/use BCC??)
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