Something In Common With People in Iraq (or, Fighting Crusade Nostalgia)

Whenever I hear a truly insane American like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell speak their trademark ignorant comments, I roll my eyes. For some reason, the media flock to these whack-jobs and ask for their opinions. Why? Why does the media keep giving these loonies free publicity? (Fortunately, these two have been quiet recently and haven’t said anything ultra-stupid publicly yet. However, with a presidential election starting up, it’s only a matter of time.)

It upsets me because I imagine foreigners watching these jerks. I wish there would be a reminder on the screen, “These fools don’t speak for all Americans. Believe me, there are plenty of us who are tolerant, who don’t want to kill everyone we disagree with.”

To me, this Iraq war thing totally smells like what I call “Crusade Nostalgia.” I think a scary percentage of people just don’t care. Wherever they live, as long as everything is okay with them, then it doesn’t matter if other people are dying or suffering. They just don’t care or worse yet, they think it’s a good thing. They find the deaths of complete strangers acceptable as long as those people are a different skin color or a different religion.

So maybe jerks like Falwell and Robertson do represent America! Falwell on Iraq: God is Pro-war (http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=3685) Robertson on Iraq: Criticism of the war in Iraq "amounts to treason."(http://mediamatters.org/items/200512120002) No, definitely not ALL of America. I can’t think that I’m alone in getting annoyed that the media flocks to a select group of cruel weirdos and thereby end up presenting them as our representatives to the world.

For instance, there must be some citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan that feel the same way. They must just roll their eyes when they witness the US media flocking to the latest murderous whack job who spouts some anti-American threat. I can see them thinking the same thing I do: “These fools don’t speak for all Iraqis (or Afghanis). Believe me, there are plenty of us who are tolerant, and don’t want to kill everyone we disagree with.”

Maybe the people in Iraq (and Afghanistan) who feel that way have fled, or they stay silent for fear of a violent reprisal. Or maybe when they finally do speak up, their voices just aren’t broadcast with the same enthusiasm. The Iraqi and Afghani people may be worlds away, but I suspect frustration with the telescoping effect of the media might be something we have in common.

The media is the only real contact I have with anyone in Iraq, but when I see how the media acts here, I can infer how it might act somewhere else as well. I can also infer how Iraqis feel from universal human nature. If I lived in Iraq, I’d be sick of the media flocking to the nut-cases. I really am at loss for how to address this, other than to not base my views of a whole people on a few select media jerks, and hope that others do the same.

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Larry Nocella is the award-winning author of the novel Where Did This Come From? available at Amazon and Xlibris and other fine online book stores. Also, for a limited time, Where Did This Come From? is available as an eBook for only ONE DOLLAR. Visit Larry Nocella's website at www.LarryNocella.com.