Wherein I Get All Political-Like
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
At the cost of sounding racially insensitive, I have to ask: did seeing Arnold at the RNC scare anyone else in a WWII kind of way? I don't know about you, but seeing someone with a German accent loudly espousing right wing rhetoric in front of a lilly-white sea of cheering supporters made me wonder if everything really does come full circle on a long enough timeline. Come to think of it, our foreign policy the last few years must have had at least a few old veterans scratching their heads and wondering what team they were on. America as warmonger, invading another country before being attacked? Germany and Japan attracting bad PR for not wanting to go to war? WTF? Especially accounting for the memory lapses that come with age, I wonder if there were any Vietnam-style flashbacks that didn't quite make the news, with Dear Old Grandpa throwing the children behind the couch and getting ready to lay down cover fire, yelling at the dog and calling it a Kraut bastard.
Okay no wait seriously, that crazy brain stuff is going on right now with the younger soldiers. I read an article about some Camp Pendleton Marines having problems integrating into civilian life after coming back from Iraq, like these poor bastards:
Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Burns oversees counseling services at Camp Pendleton. [...] One Marine in her charge could not cross a city street without suffering a panic attack, she said, because he felt exposed to sniper or mortar fire. Two others flipped over a table and took up positions to return fire after hearing a rap song that included the distinctive crack of an AK-47.