AND SO THE WAR ENDED
Sep. 1st, 2010 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogAnd there was much rejoicing.
In 1945, I mean.
These days, ending wars is more low-key. The combat troops leave, the president goes on TV, says, “Well, that’s done,” and America is returned to its originally scheduled programming.
Maybe it’s because I’m living overseas and not getting the full picture, but it’s not exactly a ticker-tape parade in Times Square and sailors smooching dames in the street, is it? I’m sure a lot of towns are giving local soldiers a warm welcome home with a ceremony, BBQ and maybe a parade. But overall, Americans seemed in a much more celebratory mood back when the war started, compared to now. Yes, the war is less popular now, but you'd think that would translate into more "Hurrah it's finally over" shenanigans.
Of course, there are mitigating factors here. For example, a lot of Americans may think the war ended when Junior Bush said it did, and the last seven years have been fine-tuning, mop-up and paperwork (give or take the 4000+ US soldiers who died after Bush declared the war over, as well as the occasional civilian casualty).
There’s also the question of whether “over” is the same as "victory" or “success”. Everyone’s pretty sure we didn’t lose, but that’s not always the same as winning. Still, that depends on who you ask. For example, if “success” = "killing Saddam Hussein and his whole family whether he really had WMDs or not", then yeah, we nailed it.
Also, there’s the fact that we still have 50,000 soldiers still in the country. Sure, we still have troops in Germany and Japan too, but – unlike the ones in Iraq – there aren’t groups of people still actively trying to kill them.
And, of course, there’s that OTHER war.
So I can see why the official end of Iraq War 2 seems anti-climactic to a lot of people.
Still, it says a lot that in the 21st century, we get more excited about starting wars than ending them.
Res ipsa loquitur.
Not on the same page,
This is dF
In 1945, I mean.
These days, ending wars is more low-key. The combat troops leave, the president goes on TV, says, “Well, that’s done,” and America is returned to its originally scheduled programming.
Maybe it’s because I’m living overseas and not getting the full picture, but it’s not exactly a ticker-tape parade in Times Square and sailors smooching dames in the street, is it? I’m sure a lot of towns are giving local soldiers a warm welcome home with a ceremony, BBQ and maybe a parade. But overall, Americans seemed in a much more celebratory mood back when the war started, compared to now. Yes, the war is less popular now, but you'd think that would translate into more "Hurrah it's finally over" shenanigans.
Of course, there are mitigating factors here. For example, a lot of Americans may think the war ended when Junior Bush said it did, and the last seven years have been fine-tuning, mop-up and paperwork (give or take the 4000+ US soldiers who died after Bush declared the war over, as well as the occasional civilian casualty).
There’s also the question of whether “over” is the same as "victory" or “success”. Everyone’s pretty sure we didn’t lose, but that’s not always the same as winning. Still, that depends on who you ask. For example, if “success” = "killing Saddam Hussein and his whole family whether he really had WMDs or not", then yeah, we nailed it.
Also, there’s the fact that we still have 50,000 soldiers still in the country. Sure, we still have troops in Germany and Japan too, but – unlike the ones in Iraq – there aren’t groups of people still actively trying to kill them.
And, of course, there’s that OTHER war.
So I can see why the official end of Iraq War 2 seems anti-climactic to a lot of people.
Still, it says a lot that in the 21st century, we get more excited about starting wars than ending them.
Res ipsa loquitur.
Not on the same page,
This is dF
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no subject
on 2010-09-01 05:54 am (UTC)