David Spader's character, Alan Shore, delivered an excellent observation of the current state of the war...
First, this is hardly about anti-war sentiments. Private Elliott was for the war.
Personally, I'm against it. Then, I was for it, and then I was against it again. But that's just me. I'm a flip-flopper.
But... Whether one is for or against the occupation, and let's assume judging from your tie that one is, that does not exempt the military from the duty to be honest with its soldiers. Private Elliott was told he'd serve a year. He was told he wouldn't see combat. Okay, unexpected stuff happens. He did see combat. Fine.
But... He was sent into combat with insufficient backup. He was sent in to perform duties for which he was never, ever trained. He wasn't given the most basic of equipment. And then, after his tour of duty was finally up, they wouldn't let him leave. He never assumed those risks by enlisting.
Over-extended. Under-equipped. Non-trained.
He never signed up for that, and now he's dead.
And aside from his sister, nobody seems to care. We talk about honoring the troops. How 'bout honor them by giving a damn when they're killed.
Our kids are dying over there, and this country -- the people, the media -- we all chug along like nothing is wrong. We'll spend a month obsessing about Terri Shaivo, but dare we show a body of a fallen solder.
The most watched cable-news station will spend an hour a night on a missing girl in Aruba, but God forbid we pay any attention when kids like Private Elliott are killed in action.
We've had two thousand American trees fall in that forest over there, and we don't even know it. Not really...
But... Maybe we don't want to know about our children dying.
So, lucky for us, this war isn't really being televised. We're not seeing images of soldiers dying in the arms of their comrads -- being blown apart in the streets of Bahgdad. But they are... by the thousands.
And all the American public wants to concern itself with, is whether Brad & Angelina really are a couple.
At least with Vietnam, we all watched, and we all got angry.
Private Elliott is dead, in part, because we have a people and a government in denial.
We, currently, have no strategy to fight this war. We have no time table for getting out. Some of these troops could be extended 20-plus years. Their mothers & fathers have to spring for body armor because the army doesn't. And they're getting killed.
And we as a nation in denial, are letting them. We simply don't seem to care.
Well, she does. She's in this courtroom honoring one dead soldier.
That's a start...
To which the judge responded...
This war is a disaster. It has been sold to America on a false premise. The government has been repeatedly told by its most senior military advisors that it needs far more troops. The advisors have been ignored, or in some cases, even fired.
Now, we have what very much looks like the beginning of another Vietnam. Except as Mr. Shore points out, without the necessary outrage.
Of course, the radical, pro-war wrong are all over the message boards calling for a boycott of "Boston Legal." They just hate it when the truth is told, and they don't get the opportunity to spin their lies to the world.
I did read a very well written response to the radicals' outrage...
by: virginia_patriot (33 Posts in the last 90 days) Registered: Nov 01, 2005
The CIA has lost many good people during the Bush administration and some of them are speaking out. They are outraged that the Bush administration put people in charge of the CIA who would be politically bullied to cook the facts and distort the truth. Why else was Cheney always going over to the CIA to try to direct and influence the intelligence. The Nigerian yellow cake report that was forged in Italy was rebuked by our CIA and welcomed with open arms by Bush and his cronies. Didn't anyone hear of the Downing Street Memo...when during a top level cabinet meeting of Tony Blair and his advisors it was discussed that the war in Iraq was inevitable and that Bush was going to use fake intelligence present a case for war? Do you people only watch FOX news or something??
How Dare this administration lie to America, Congress, and the world to illegally invade another country who did nothing to us? Oh but then I bet you think Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11?? Osama Bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia and his Al Queda hit our Twin Towers and the Pentagon. But Osama is NOW in Iraq recruiting like crazy....
And then Rove, Cheney and Libby actually acted in unethical ways (and I agree that it was treason) and outed a covert CIA agent who specialized in finding real Weapons of Mass Destruction. So they could try to shut up her husband who was simply reporting that the Bush Administration was lying about Iraq trying to buy nuclear material in AFrica???
Sometimes I have to wonder what George Bush would have to do in order to lose support among the 22% who remain his strong supporters. Out of the 39% of the people who are polled who still support George Bush 17% are now in the "somewhat" support column.
But from the vehemence of the pro war lobby here in America I think they doth protest too much. I imagine they don't like the fact that 58% of Americans want the U.S. out of Iraq. Maybe that 22% have investments in Haliburton or something??
Thank You Boston Legal for presenting the majority's side for a change instead of the elitist viewpoint and the politician's spinning that passes as news in this country.
And ironically, given my earlier post regarding the CIA's worldwide torture chambers, last week "Commander in Chief" addressed that very topic.
Thank you to ABC for allowing the reasonable voices to be heard.
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