Covered in White Flags

Looking forward to a successful second week on the job, I was shocked to find Lewis and Clark covered in White flags. Little white flags cover the lawn with red ones in between. The Symbolism is to represent the Iraqi's that have fallen as compared to the Americans. To say the least, it's impressive.

What does this say on the Global War on Terror? The GWoT? Well I watched an interesting documentary on "our children's, children's war" last night on Discovery. A summary of the show can be seen here.

The part I got is this:

The GWoT is really %20 military fighting. A majority of it is seen in Iraq and the surrounding region, but the "terrorists" are more or less influential people who rally disgruntled citizens to let them stay and operate. What I mean is that people around the world follow what sounds right to them or what makes since. People want something solid that if they trust in it, it'll pay off. People don't want to get duped.

America (to Americans) is a different America to non-Americans. When we see 'getmo' or Guantanamo Bay be the site of heinous crimes, or when we see (more recently) Walter Reed be publicized for poor treatment of it's "clients" we shrug and let the politicians battle it out and try and forget the whole thing, or just turn off the t.v./radio. However, all of this junk is getting broadcasted to Iraq and the whole region. People are listening and when they read that America stands for "high moral values" and see this blatant act against that, what are they going to think? If a terrorist says, "see they're fakes" the people believe the terrorist and let them stay to protect them. Well if one is going to win this GWoT then it sounds like we're going to have shape up and respect the promises we made or change our message.

Double standards are not the historical American norm, some might differ and say it is. The truth is that we can't win the hearts and minds until we lead the example of "good morality and democracy" ourselves.

~j out