Views on the War

We as civilians have to rely on the media to give us our information. We trust them to give us accurate, unbiased information. We aren't on the ground in Iraq, so we don't personally know what is going on there. Our elected officials also tell us what is going on in Iraq, but it is hard to get good information out of them due to their desire to hang on to power; they tell us what we want to hear, as opposed to the truth.

Depending on how partisan you are, you might think that either we are not hearing enough "good news" coming out of Iraq, or you don't want to hear any good news because you want President Bush to fail in "his" war. This may be an over simplistic view, but it seems like the hard right complain that we don't hear the good news (which the media say they cannot find due to how dangerous it is on the ground) and the hard left give us only the bad and perhaps don't want to find any good coming out of this war. Where does that leave the majority of us in the middle who just want to know what the hell is going on? Because of technology, we have soldiers on the ground, who can update us in real-time on their experiences over there. What I have found though, is that depending on the soldier, some have only positive things to say (you have probably gotten the email forwarded to you, where a soldier emails home to let his family know how he is doing, and that the "media don't tell you the good things that are happening over here") while others post on blogs how miserable they are, and how the Iraqis don't want them there, etc. Whom do we believe?

I ran across this essay posted today on the web by a guy who has done one tour already, and is deploying for another one next April. I also found this blog from a contractor, who is LDS who is back in Iraq for a second time and just loves it over there. He says it has been one of the best experiences of his life. Why the disparity? What causes some people over there to only see the good, and others with such low moral? My brother-in-law has done one tour which lasted a year, and he has to go back for another one next year, which will be 18 months. Obviously, he is not excited. He has a family that he does not want to leave, but of course will since it is his duty to serve. He told me that there is no tangible enemy--there is no one to shoot at! He said bombs just go off every day. All of our men are getting blown up because you can't shoot at a bomb. Moral is very low, and they are all very excited about Rumsfeld retiring. Now, I must note that my brother-in-law is not political at all. He is not a partisan left or right winger, so I trust his explanation on what is going on on the ground. He is a moderate independent who doesn't really care who is in the White House, since no matter who is there is still the commander-in-chief. The bottom line is, I just find it interesting how so many people in the same situation seeing the sames things, actually see them differently. I suspect that partisan politics has something to do with that, but I don't know for sure.