"Atrocity-producing Situations"

Wonderful article on Truthout by Dahr Jamail on how Iraq is an 'atrocity-producing situation'. We, the American public, don't often hear about atrocities being commited by American troops on innocent civilians. As the article points out, Americans are likely to respond with disbelief when confronted with accusations...'Not our boys'...'They couldn't do such a thing'...'We're the good guys'

Imagine for a second though. You're in Iraq. The stress is almost incomprehensible. Death is something you face literally every single day. From a sniper, a concerted attack from a well-armed, highly-motivated enemy, an IED, a mortar...you drive around and look into the eyes of the people you're there to help and you see fear, anger, resentment...now your buddy gets killed. What do you do? You go kill some Hajis that's what you do? Oh...you wouldn't? You'd treat everyone with the resepct they're due? Win their 'hearts and minds'? Bullshit.

It's the Zoos humble opinion that people are less their character then they are their circumstance and circumstances in Iraq are 'atrocity-producing situations'. Know anyone who served over there? Go ask them what it's like...more than likely they'll decline to talk about it because it's embarrassing...and painful and they did things that they know are abhorrent...does that make them bad people? No. It makes them human beings being asked to operate in horrible conditions...

These are our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers...they are people called to service for a thousand reasons and they are being fed into the meat-grinder for mind-boggling reasons...

Remember the story of the American soldiers trading battlefield pics for access to gay porn? Well that's where I got the pic above. HERE's a good article on Irregular Times about the pics...(CAREFUL: Graphic Images!!)

Whew...it's tough material but it helps fill in the 'real' cost of the war, not just in dollars but in real lives...
-----------------------------------------------------

Ok, I know you need to smile now so I found a good story for you. Chevy is launching a new Chevy Tahoe and they set up a website HERE so that you can create your own Chevy commercial...it's corporate America trying to utilize the cool YouTubeization of the web so as to appear cool...well, it's not working out quite as planned as individuals are expressing their political views in their commercials...click HERE for some of the funny ads...

Stay safe and as always...

Stay Naked

ad

POPS UPDATE: Pops had the surgery today and all is well...keep praying you X-tian nutters:)