Larry Forrest on the war in Iraq

The writer of this piece, Larry Forrest, is currently living in Norman but has plans to move back to Tulsa.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072206G.shtml

I am so goddamned tired of this nanny-state bullshit! It's not enough that naughty words be bleeped, but the speaker's mouth has to be blurred so as to keep lipreaders from being corrupted. Worse, our foul-mouthed, hypocritical Prude-in-Chief signed legislation in June that increases the fine to $325,000 for each instance of broadcast indecency.

What insane culture we live in. The whole damn country has a conniption fit over the quickie revelation of one female breast during a Super Bowl halftime show, but we fall for the neocon job that landed us in Iraq, and we allow that illegal, immoral, and irresponsible war to continue. That, my friends, is the real obscenity.

Of course we all know that Dubya cusses a blue streak, and that if he were fined for every expletive he fails to delete he'd be in hock to the FCC for millions of dollars. Yet that son of Bush can sign legislation that effectively chills broadcasters from using his favorite cuss words. Hey, I'm all for little children not being exposed to vulgar language, but that's why parents and channel changers exist. If the former can master operation of the latter, then their children will be spared a life of crime resulting from hearing such shitty words as spurt forth from the mouth of our Pastor-in-Chief. Look, it's just not the responsibility of Uncle Sam to censor every program so that it will [be] acceptable to the most prudish of prudes.

Rather than censor documentaries about war, or the daily coverage of the gory carnage in the Middle East, I think we should show it in all its realistic horror. Show the bloody corpses, show the decapitated heads, show the wounded in hospitals--let's hear their screams of agony (the universal language), let's hear our troops cursing the enemy, the weather, and--yea verily--even our leaders in Washington, DC.

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I read that somewhere in Iraq a teenage girl was murdered, decapitated, and the head of a dog sown on her neck. If this is so, a photo should be taken and shown on every goddamn media outlet: it should be on the front page of The New York Times; it should be on billboards all across the country; it should be on milk cartons. The caption would read: "This is your fucking war, America! This is what your tax dollars are buying. This is what happens when you go to war with barbarian religious fanatics who are happy to die for their barbarian God and happier still to murder for Him. This is what happens when you don't pay attention to what the hell is going on around you. This is what happens when you allow yourselves to be seduced by all the flag-waving, jingoistic bullshit your "Christian" leaders flummoxed you with. Wake up, you dumbshit assholes, before it's too late!"

Whew! I really went off on a rant there, didn't I? But it's hard not to be blind with anger when you consider the blatant stupidity being practiced right before our unbelieving eyes. As Bob Dole put it during the 1996 presidential race: "Where's the outrage?" Relatively speaking, there was very little then to be outraged about. Now, however, there's a flaming shitload.

Wait a minute: what am I upset about? Maybe the FCC is right. Maybe, in fact, it doesn't go far enough. Concerning the WWII documentary: sure, let's mute the sound and pixilate the mouths of those who swear. But more than that, we shouldn't allow people to see that most common outcome of war: dead bodies. Instead, let's superimpose cute little teddy bears and ducks and bunny wabbits and TeleTubbies on all those ugly corpses. We certainly don't want people to get the impression that war is hell, particularly when it's being fought for a noble cause, like the war in Iraq. Yes, I can see so much better now.

Thank you for inserting the brain probe into the back of my skull, you kind and patriotic FBI agents.

I love Big Brother.

Jingoistically,

Larry