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Post by Jaga on Apr 15, 2007 16:20:08 GMT -7
The documentary, America on the crossroads will start tonight. It will be at all PBS stations. At our station it will start at 9 pm, I will try to watch. Just to remind you guys about it also
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Post by Jaga on Apr 15, 2007 16:20:30 GMT -7
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Post by Jaga on Apr 16, 2007 10:10:05 GMT -7
Today (Monday) there will be some interviews with the soldiers in the second part of this documentary.
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Post by kaima on Apr 16, 2007 10:38:24 GMT -7
I watched the first part yesterday. It seemed to emphasize how America is fulfilling Bin Laden's ambitions with our actions. I wonder if others saw the same thing in the program.
Kai
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Post by joanzaniskey on Apr 16, 2007 20:18:40 GMT -7
2nd episode left me ambivalent as to what the series is trying to say. It is truly and thankfully supportive of the U.S. troops and not of their generals and civilian commanders. The 9/11 attack on U.S. civilians could not go unanswered, but the Iraq war was and remains a major mistake on the part of the W. Bush presidency.
Kai, you view the series as emphasizing America's fulfillment of Bin Laden's ambitions and you may be right. The past 6 years of White House administration and policy will be viewed as the most inept and incompetent in U.S. history. In Clinton's second term the Bin Laden issue may have been resolved but, for the distraction of the Lewinsky scandal and subsequent impeachment. What a shame Bill couldn't keep it zipped. He was a brilliant President with a total
understanding of the Middle East.
Joan
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Post by kaima on Apr 17, 2007 8:40:25 GMT -7
Looks like we have a small, exclusive group discussion here!
Joan, I see the second chapter as completely divorced from the first. The second episode just told the story from the macro perspective, the boots on the ground as they like to say today. I came away feeling they are doing a heck of a good job in tough circumstances, which is no great surprise. I can imagine they are concentrating on doing the best they can to get a good job done and can't waste time thinking about why they are there - what our politicians and nation are doing to them and why.
My personal tendency is to blame Bush and his cowardice much more than congress, and I am thoroughly disappointed in the nation for not paying more attention to what we are doing and why. We aren't carrying any of the war burden in our civilian lives, even the minor burden of partially paying for the war as we go. The lack of discussion on this forum is a microcosm of the nation's will to ignore the war.
Twice they panned slowly over a chest full of ribbons on a few of the guys and I couldn't help thinking of the military I have worked with over the last 20 years. They had a peacetime military and passed out ribbons like candy. I saw young officers with three rows of ribbons when tehy barely had more than three years of active service, it peacetime! That was Air Force.
I will never question a Marine and the ribbons he carries. They don't design their uniforms to glitter with chrome or clutter them with extraneous decoration.
I liked the way they showed the tough job of discerning the good guys from the bad guys.
Kai
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Post by bescheid on Apr 17, 2007 9:28:23 GMT -7
Jaga, Kai and Joan
Please do forgive for my non-participation in this very fine discussion. I do follow it very closely as of personal interest. For my non-participation is not of non-interest, but by far a more important reasoning.
This reasoning is in a very high respect to you folks as I do not wish to bring the displeasure of my intrinsic and learnt reasons to display into possible offensive words and opinions. For I do care and hold a very high respect to all here.
I hold a high respect for the fighting men and women of your country and of those of other nations caught up in the hell they call war. For my self was not spared military training {different military}. For as a person, I am not for war, but not against it. If a war is required, it must be extremely swift with hammer force and the declared enemy's will and ability to fight, totally destroyed. But, it must be with the will of the people. For there is no goal in war, but, victory, all other endings constitutes a defeat. It is to win, or it is to lose.
War is some what easy to comprehend as long as it is in a land far away and not on your home land. It is much easy to watch some one Else's house burnt down then your own. If it is your own home that is destroyed, a thousand reasons of why comes to mind, and the search for answers from others will not be found; other then the reasons of the fire is not their concern, but why you let your house burn and endanger that of ours.
The above is a metaphor I know, if not understood, then there is little reason to wonder.
For this is my reason of non-participation
Charles
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Post by joanzaniskey on Apr 17, 2007 18:35:44 GMT -7
Kai,
I do not know if there is more to be said about what has gone done already in the Iraq war. We know it was and is still a major mistake on the part the W Bush administration. The decision to lie to the American people about weapons of "mass destruction" has to rest on the President, W Bush. The American people deserve some blame for blindly following their leader. Most Americans were in shock after 9/11 and went for the rhetoric and flag waving of the inept Whitehouse.The Congress went along also. As said before this is old news, and we all know what American politics is about.
The "minor tax burden" for Americans is enormous, but pales in comparison to the price this war has placed on the the families of the military killed and even worse the physically and emotional maimed survivors and their families.
Americans now have another tragedy to deal with. At Virginia Tech University the greatest massacre of students in our history happened on 4/16. I cannot offer any comment.
Joan
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Post by Jaga on Apr 22, 2007 16:33:45 GMT -7
The interesting part was on Thursday. It was devoted to muslim countries, their culture and differences.
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