For Marines in Iraq, Humor Offers Escape

[Judi Lynn]

For Marines in Iraq, Humor Offers Escape

Thursday July 21, 2005 9:01 AM
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA
Associated Press Writer
HADITHA, Iraq (AP) - Slumped on the doorstep of a war-damaged police station, worn out and sweltering in 110 degree heat, Pfc. Derek Davidson couldn't resist a joke about a friend who'd stayed back at base after injuring himself lifting weights.

``I gotta go to the gym more often,'' Davidson lamented. Around him, a small group of fellow U.S. Marines, taking a brief break from battle, erupted into snickers.

As they have throughout their history, the Marines here often turn to jokes or pranks to relieve the tension of living in constant danger, these days while patrolling dusty streets of this western Iraqi town.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5156110,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. I had a question about the timing of this AP article.....

and it may be too tinfoilish: considering the timing (a couple of days before the OTHER set of Abu Ghraib photos is expected to be released), do you think this odd article, from outta nowhere, informing you that it's the STRESS (hard work) that causes GI's to have very dark humor, and to have a need to laugh due to so much pressure might have been written to try to influence people to start thinking IN ADVANCE that they probably laugh a lot because they're actually nervous, in other words, typical HUMAN BEINGS, and not to be seen as different from us? Wouldn't this preconditioning tend to deflect criticism in advance of the time we saw more photos of soldiers clowing around while others were in pain?

Is it possible?

You DO know some of our administrations seem to spend a lot of their time (and our money) in "molding perception." Do you think this is the case?

I think I do.