connecting*the*dots

27 Responses to “Graffiti Friday: The Real Deal”  

1. 1 tina Feb 23rd, 2007 at 3:08 pm

   Brilliant! Thanks for posting this.

2. 2 flu Mar 2nd, 2007 at 7:06 pm

   This sounds to me like a reason to militate against the war.
   Yes, send more troops there to kill more “terrorists”, bring pain to other families too and have boys from there join the other side and so on…

3. 3 liz Mar 6th, 2007 at 10:57 pm

   or daughter…

4. 4 sean coon Mar 6th, 2007 at 10:58 pm

   or a neighbor… the list goes on and on…

5. 5 Ami Mar 8th, 2007 at 10:22 pm

   this is a wonderful piece, something creative and i admire the person who did this.

6. 6 Max Mar 9th, 2007 at 4:17 am

   Or even someone who came back with no physical injuries…

   My best friend went, and now I never know if he’s okay. He’s become so sensitive emotionally, but now can’t share his feelings like he used to.

   I feel like it will be years before we’re ever going to be able to talk honestly without a white elephant in the room.

7. 7 Tommy Mar 9th, 2007 at 8:53 am

   I don’t know why British people are complaining about this, you’re country is leaving now and you’ve lost not even close to a comparable number of people in this conflict. It just sounds like some anti-conformist bitching to me. How can you expect to do nothing for your government and in return expect them to protect you?

8. 8 Telecidal Mar 9th, 2007 at 10:51 am

   @ Tommy - “How can you expect to do nothing for your government and in return expect them to protect you?” Protect us from what? The WMD’s? Ah, no, we were lied to and none existed. Hold on, how about the Al Qaeda link? Yikes, nope that was invented too. Erm, do you really not know what’s going on here? Do you know no other way to exist other than to simply repeat the media/government lies like a good little drone? Yeah those other people ARE anti-conformist and for good reason. There’s no pride in being a conformist. Open your eyes.

9. 9 Tommy Mar 10th, 2007 at 1:56 am

   Well “Telecidal” I’ll have you know that I in no way support this war and I consider myself to be very liberal but I do have a problem with people separating themselves from the mainstream just to be different. You were absolutely right to say that there is no pride in being a conformist but being an ignorant non-conformist without just cause is far worse. Fight for what you believe in not what the popular opinion is. And as to your reference of the “WMD’s” I wasn’t referencing that, that was in fact what we need protection from. No matter what circumstance you need a to have military to protect you from any threat no matter what it is. You obviously stereotyped me as some sort of American conservative pig which is not the case. I agree with you on both points that the Bush administration lied to the public about the happenings in the middle east without a doubt. But I do think that we should support the people out there fighting this retched war that no one wants to be in, but circumstances have been drawn out in this case where we have to be there. I think that this sign belittles the people out there doing their job. They didn’t sign up to fight in a war that they didn’t believe in, it’s just the situation that has unfortunately been handed to them. I m’ not sure how can you tell me to open my eyes when I’m not the one blinded and guided by popular opinion. I’m not calling you ignorant and I don’t mean to be rude but it seems narrow minded the way your putting your point across.

10. 10 Telecidal Mar 10th, 2007 at 6:20 am

    Tommy - supporting the armed forces (as in your last post) is something we should all do, but supporting the government (as in your first post) is completely different. I spent 6 months in the Persian Gulf while in the Navy and received a medal for my time down there and I fully appreciate how the troops are simply pawns in this. The government aren’t protecting you and I from anything. You said otherwise in your initial message which is why I picked you up on it.

11. 11 StAsH Mar 10th, 2007 at 6:49 am

    Very well stated Tommy. I agree with you completely. I applaud your response on many levels. Articulate, insightful, and righteously defensive, with out being derogatory, elusive or straying from the point. I agree the public was lied to, but undermining our brothers and sisters and cousins and uncles and fathers and friends who unwittingly find themselves in a war, started for the wrong reasons is not right. I feel ALL anti-war propaganda BS sends the wrong message to our soldiers.

    Support Our Troops, and bring ‘em home soon…

12. 12 Tommy Mar 10th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    Thank you stash, I agree completely. But as to the comment directly after my last post, I agree with you except that somehow I still have faith in my government after our last elections we seem to be heading on a more peaceful path than we were before. But I appreciate that although we don’t agree we still found that we stand for the same thing. God speed.

13. 13 The Truth Mar 11th, 2007 at 12:22 am

    @Tommy

    I’ll wager any amount of money that “StAsh” is nothing more than a sockpuppet you’ve created to bolster your weak point, but that is neither here nor there. The Military DOES NOT protect the people, frankly. It protects the “interests” of the nation. These “interests”, as least as far as the US is concerned, revolve almost exclusively around furthering the long held policy of global scale economic and cultural imperialism.

    This is the truth. You are not safe, nor will you ever be safe. Big Brother does not spend trillions of dollars to protect you, he spends that cash, YOUR cash, to make even more for himself. Our safety is a convenient excuse, a conveniet moral high ground.

14. 14 sean coon Mar 11th, 2007 at 12:41 am

    for what it’s worth, Tommy and StAsH used different IP addresses… but you’re completely on point regarding our national pursuit of interests.

15. 15 Tommy Mar 13th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    Whomever the person regarding them self as “the truth” is you made some very interesting points, although I do believe they sound a bit like extremist conspiracy theory’s to me. You said “you are not safe” and I agree with you that there is no safety among any one today and no matter how much money our government does spend on their efforts to protect us. But, I do believe almost wholeheartedly that our military does protect us even though they are for one reason or another half-way around the globe fighting an imperialists war. I think that you are stereotyping Americans (even if you do so happen to be American) as if we are all impeding a-holes which is not true, although we do have our fair share.

    I think that our military has been used to forward the interests of a President and not our nation as a whole. This country is full of people who may be politically un-inclined and sometimes ignorant but, in it’s entirety I think that we do have a vast amount of people who would do anything to help anyone which is why the misleading information that our government supplied us with reeled us into an un-needed and un-justifiable war.

    Your reference to “Big Brother” somehow bothers me because I have trouble believing that there a large amount of people drawing up conspiracies and figuring out ways to advance himself; which I can’t figure out who you’re referring to although I have an idea that you might be referencing our President and his colleagues and if you are I do believe that you somewhat correct but for what’s it’s worth those “few” people that may be in on it are on their way out in 2008 and hopefully democracy will pull through for us and bring in a better administration that will correct the wrongs that have been made and lead us on a better path. I may be optimistic with hopes that for both our sakes you are wrong. But you may be far more correct in this issue than I.

16. 16 Jason Mar 13th, 2007 at 9:11 pm

    Good point Tommy, Stash. Telecidal and “the truth” you guys are entitled to your own opinions and I respect them. As for the troops, my brothers and sisters who are dying out there protecting the “ideals” that intitle every one to their own opinion, they need every one’s support. We didnt choose to go out there and leave our families. We didnt choose to take someone’s life or cause “pain” as refered above. We simply found it within ourselves to take that step and protect our nation. Truth, you might be right. The armed forces dont protect the people. So if we ever get invaded or have another major natural disaster, we will all stand still and see how you might defend our people. Frankly, I think I’ve said enough, and I’ll leave you guys with this. To those who support us, thank you, we can see it in the packages and letters. The rest that say they do, those ribbons look cute on your cars.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0&eurl=http://www.myspace.com/

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k99Lg5TbU0

    Maybe these links can shed a bit of light.

17. 17 sean coon Mar 13th, 2007 at 10:25 pm

    jason, i didn’t read anyone ripping into our military on this thread, but truth be told, i don’t understand how you can have it both ways:

    “We didnt choose to go out there and leave our families. We didnt choose to take someone’s life or cause “painâ€? as refered above. We simply found it within ourselves to take that step and protect our nation.”

    so which is it? did you join a volunteer army or not? don’t get me twisted, i respect the hell out of our military, but when you sign up, you’re making a conscious decision to become a pawn in the chess game of our baton-passing administrations.

    so if you don’t agree with this war, just say it. otherwise, you’re making many conscious decisions to dance around the issue.

18. 18 Jason Mar 14th, 2007 at 7:49 pm

    Well, I dont agree with war to a certain extent. In my mind, they should have just said ” We want to free the ppl of Iraq from the pain their dictator causes”. That would have been a better statement i believe. I believe in helping the people. I have seen how gratefull they are of the freedom we have given them. That should have been it though. We should have been home by now. I honestly dont believe we are going to transform that country or any other country in that region. They have been living that way for ages. I made a decision to enlist. I raised my hand. I volunteered. That doesnt mean that when they tell me im getting deployed, I sing and jump around with joy. Some one has to do what others want, and in this case its us. Thats my view.

19. 19 sean coon Mar 14th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

    thanks, jason.

20. 20 billy Mar 16th, 2007 at 11:24 pm

    We should have an military that doesn’t ever have to fight. The risk of dying is just too great.

21. 21 Stupu Mar 19th, 2007 at 3:29 pm

    I have to say all these people complaining about their sons and daughter’s dying in Iraq kinda gets on my nerves… they (the soldiers) made a conscious choice to risk their lives representing their country, wherever they were sent. The very concept of the military is to have a larger more advanced group of people kill the less capable people on the other side.

    War sucks, no doubt, but what right does anyone have to complain when the war is being fought literally thousands of miles away. Remember that the people who live in Iraq (the ones who were invaded) now have personal freedom to a far greater extent than before the invasion. The minority who disagreed fought back, as you would expect, there are just more of them who are better skilled than either of our governments expected, and this is why their are still troops in Iraq… it’s also why there are more being sent in there. You can’t start something like this (i.e. bringing democracy to a dictatorship, run by a man who practically everyone in the free world hated) then say “well… we’ve installed a new democracy, they’ve chosen a leader, and the people who lost the election are blowing up buildings… we’re gonna get outta here before some of our people die”

    Face it, the only real way to deal with this issue and minimize all casualties is to send in more people to back them up. If they leave now, all that they have fought for and their comrades died for will be lost within a few years, with the fall of democratic leadership.

    Wait… how did I get to this kind of argument? Ahh, who cares, I kind of like the point I made and took too long writing it to delete it. Think what you will.

    Anyhoo, the armies of both our nations are filled basically with 2 kinds of people - Those who wanted to join the army, and those who dropped out of high school and didn’t want to make the effort to get qualified afterward. I’m not saying high-school dropouts deserve to die, quite the opposite, they have been the main contributors to our war efforts for decades. But what I am saying is that if they saw risking death as a decent alternative to further education, then that is their choice, and if they die out there, that is their choice as well, whether they pull the trigger or not.

    Complaining that people’s children die in these wars is a waste of everybody’s time, it gets us nowhere and leaves us in the realms of letting emotions decide what we should do. Emotions are a valuable asset in decision making, but if you think about it, unless you look at the cold, hard facts, you’re making the same sort of decisions as a psychopath, or a fanatic: what you THINK is all that matters in it, what you COULD KNOW has no bearing on it whatsoever.

    Anyways, that’s my daily half-rant over with. Thanks for reading some of it at least.

22. 22 Tommy Mar 20th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

    Couldn’t have said it better man.

23. 23 Lonesome Jack Mar 20th, 2007 at 11:58 pm

    I’m an Iraq veteran, and I’m going back in May.

    For all of you who support the war, realize this: Nobody wants it to be over more than we do.

    For all of you who condone it and try to make us victims: Our military is made of nothing but volunteers. We know what we’re getting into, thank you very much.

24. 24 Dan Mar 24th, 2007 at 2:37 am

    I think most of the troops in a volunteer army legitimately believe they are fighting for their countries’ ideals. However, I also think they underestimate the selfishness and maliciousness of their leaders.

    To join any military is courageous and honorable, but it is also putting yourself at the mercy of your leaders, who are almost always terrible people who would send you to your death for personal gain.

    Reasons like WMD, terrorism, freedom, and democracy are only used to rally support because leaders know the general population consists of decent people. The truth is that all wars are about power and money, and nothing else.

    But such is the world…

    Please don’t join any army if you can afford not to. If you already have, good luck, and I hope you come home unhurt. No one, on either side, deserves all this.

25. 25 Klayton Apr 21st, 2007 at 1:26 pm

    Question for you military folks out there. Does it piss you guys off when the Bush administration busts out with the “you are not supporting our troops”/”you are undermining our troops” shtick whenever someone disagrees with their foreign policy decisions? Do you feel used when Bush poses in front of some solders and a big American flag in order to sway American public opinion by implying that the troops support his politics? Just wondering because it would drive me crazy.

    One other question, does any of the profit from those magnetic ribbons go toward supporting out troops or is someone buying a new Mercedes with the profits? The packaging doesn’t say anything about where the money goes.

26. 26 Nigel Bird Jul 7th, 2007 at 9:32 am

    Strange that no record exist regards the ppl of Iraq’s request to be given the marvelled freedom issued ot like candy by the American Government. Liig in South Africa I see the need for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq because in the first place it is upon the persuence further of economic affluence they will never share in or gain access to that they find themselves in a place without choice. In addition to that it should be broight to all of your attention that the US administration was the key decision maker behind putting Saddam Husein into the positin of power he occupied. ….. there are just so many loose ends surrounding this issue and unpacking them with a sence of Bruta Honesty is of utmost importance - CAN YOU AMERICANS DO THAT?

27. 27 Tommy Nov 3rd, 2007 at 10:29 pm

    I am an American Nigel Bird.

    But I am sick and fucking tired of being stereoptyped with all of the war mongerers that control our country, so keep your idealistic statements to your self.