The focus on the readings for this week was the continuation of war in America, and America\u2019s unwillingness to end the war on terror. As we have discussed in class, these Wars on Terror\/Poverty\/Drugs are almost impossible to end, because there is no clear path to victory, nor is there a tangible enemy that we are working to defeat. The readings for this week examined Americans inability to let go of unnecessary, costly, and wasteful wars, and the tension between opposition to war and patriotism.<\/p>\n
The reading by Bacevich was critical of Obama and the failed promises he made to end the War in Iraq and to win the War in Afghanistan. One thing that struck me in this reading was the comment that political leaders can receive all the counseling and help in making decisions about war, but when it comes down to it, the only way the commander in chief is \u201ceducated\u201d on war is when mistakes are made and lives are lost. I felt so disheartened after reading that sentence. War is wasteful and it made me feel frustrated to realize that so many lives are being lost <\/a>in these unending conflicts.<\/p>\n The article by Astore highlighted the seven main reasons that America wont stop engaging in war. The reasons are: the privatization of war<\/a>, the embrace of the national security state by both major political parties, \u201cSupport our Troops\u201d as substitute for thought, fighting a redacted war, threat inflation, defining the world as a global battlefield, and the new \u201cnormal\u201d in America is war. After this reading, the slogan \u201cSupport our Troops,\u201d<\/a> was redefined to me. Growing up and seeing the sticker all over cars, I never questioned those three words and their meaning and implications. This phrase has become a staple in our rhetoric about war and has created a way for leaders to deflect blame and responsibility, and instead save the national conscience by overpraising soldiers and creating the belief that if you do not support war then you are unpatriotic and do not support the troops.<\/p>\n
![so many lives are being lost <\/a>in these unending conflicts.<\/p>\nThe article by Astore highlighted the seven main reasons that America wont stop engaging in war. The reasons are: the privatization of war<\/a>, the embrace of the national security state by both major political parties, \u201cSupport our Troops\u201d as substitute for thought, fighting a redacted war, threat inflation, defining the world as a global battlefield, and the new \u201cnormal\u201d in America is war. After this reading, the slogan \u201cSupport our Troops,\u201d<\/a> was redefined to me. Growing up and seeing the sticker all over cars, I never questioned those three words and their meaning and implications. This phrase has become a staple in our rhetoric about war and has created a way for leaders to deflect blame and responsibility, and instead save the national conscience by overpraising soldiers and creating the belief that if you do not support war then you are unpatriotic and do not support the troops.<\/p>\nI think that movies<\/a>, books and videogames do a good job of keeping us in the redacted state that Astore discusses because they glorify war and soldiers, and villainize foreigners. Movies highlight the moments of extraordinary courage, but don\u2019t necessarily highlight the everyday hell that soldiers endure, or the deadly mistakes that are made. It is easy for us to not focus on war in a negative sense much because we are only presented with heroes and inspiration in movies.<\/p>\nThe notion of \u201cpatriotism\u201d as an ideograph, and also as a representation of mainstream ideology was really interesting to me, and in the Hamilton reading I found myself reflecting on the fact that I have never really questioned war. I think inherently I have never done so because I don\u2019t want to be perceived as ungrateful, or to think that American troops are dying in vain. Whenever I think about the war I always feel grateful that it is not being fought on American soil, but this article challenged me to question war in a deeper sense. This article challenged me to think about how I define patriotism, and how it is challenged in the war on terror.<\/p>\nThe New York Times editorial highlighted many Americans\u2019 indifference to war. I found this shocking at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized that it is easy to feel indifferent. It\u2019s easy because the war is not being fought on American soil, and most of us do not know anyone fighting in the war. War is pushed to the backs of our minds, and the \u201cWar on Terror\u201d is hard to end because the ‘enemy’ is impossible to completely defeat.<\/p>\nThe readings for this week provided a new perspective<\/a> for me to think about war. Traditionally, I have thought of people that oppose war as anti-American, and anti-patriotic, but through the evidence and arguments put forth in these readings, I have been challenged to question if this true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The focus on the readings for this week was the continuation of war in America, and America\u2019s unwillingness to end<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/pakpotpourri2.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/06\/graphic_618850a.jpg\"){kind=link}
![privatization of war<\/a>, the embrace of the national security state by both major political parties, \u201cSupport our Troops\u201d as substitute for thought, fighting a redacted war, threat inflation, defining the world as a global battlefield, and the new \u201cnormal\u201d in America is war. After this reading, the slogan](\"https:\/\/leaksource.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/iraq-top-10-corporate-winners.jpg\"){kind=link}
![new perspective<\/a> for me to think about war. Traditionally, I have thought of people that oppose war as anti-American, and anti-patriotic, but through the evidence and arguments put forth in these readings, I have been challenged to question if this true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The focus on the readings for this week was the continuation of war in America, and America\u2019s unwillingness to end<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rhetoric-terrorism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/lyingandtheiraqwar.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/06\/cartoon-weapons-of-mass-destruction-wmd.jpg\"){kind=link}