The Soldier's Crying Mother

[Plaid Adder]

I didn't see the speech, but I've seen the descriptions, and for anyone who's curious, here's exactly what that's about:

Fahrenheit 911.

You remember Lila Lipscomb? Moore devoted as much of that movie to her as he did because he knew it would be effective. I'm sure he also does care about her and is sincerely angry and bereaved on her behalf, but he was also undoubtedly aware that because we are now in a rhetorical place where the soldier has all the authority (how many times has someone told you to shut up about conditions in Iraq because you're not there so you don't know? how many times have you been told not to complain about the war because you have to 'support the troops'? how many times has one of your points about why this war was a crime and a shame been rebutted by some piece of email someone claims to have gotten from his third cousin's wife's brother's nephew who's serving in Iraq and says everything is beautiful there and they love us?) and nobody can challenge him, everyone is scrambling for the soldier's endorsement. Moore found himself a soldier, and then went one better by finding a soldier's mother--who's in an even *stronger* position because not only has she made the Ultimate Sacrifice (a soldier who has made the Ultimate Sacrifice cannot be interviewed, as s/he is necessarily dead) but our ability to empathize with her isn't complicated by her participation in the war, and she doesn't have that masculine thing where she has to feel ashamed about showing emotion.

Bush can get the soldier's endorsement any time he wants--and he does, constantly, by surrounding himself with camo-clad military types who have no doubt been ordered to look like they're enjoying his presence--but he's had a harder time finding something to balance out Lila Lipscomb. Military Families Speak Out is not making his life any easier, and as we know, there is no footage of him attending funerals. He managed to find one woman who still believes that Bush made the right decision by sending her son into battle, and he put her front and center so that now any time anyone brings up Lila Lipscomb or any other angry and bereaved parent, he can point to her.

It is disgusting, absolutely. But it's also par for the course. Soldiers are valuable to this administration not just as actual boots on the ground but as symbols that can be used to squash dissent, stifle criticism, promote emotional allegiance to the state, and pry money out of Congress. In fact, you could argue that really, their symbolic value has been MORE important; these soldiers are doing more for Bush's agenda at home than they have been able to do to advance his foreign policy, thanks to the incompetent management of the military.

This is why, no matter how many atrocities are committed in the course of this war, I think it has to be our responsibility to do everything we can to extend compassion and support to the soldiers who come home. Our current government does not give a shit about them once they have served their purposes. Eventually, when this dark period is over, this war will be a national embarrassment that everyone who supported it would much prefer to forget. It will be up to those of us who always knew this war was a mistake to remember and tend to the people who were destroyed by it. Because as hard as we're being screwed right now, the soldiers are being screwed worse--paradoxically, _because_ they are so valuable to the administration and are therefore being exploited in so many, many ways.

Depressed now,

THe Plaid Adder

[Mistress Quickly]

1. She's not the only one to feel that way

I'm sure. They have to believe in the mission, otherwise the pain of knowing their loved one died "for nothing" would be too great.

[Plaid Adder]

2. No, I'm sure you're right

I mean it's bad enough having lost a child; if you can still believe that your child's death is going to help accomplish something wonderful and world-changing, at least that's some comfort. To some extent, I think the same thing is happening with a lot of the people who support the war; they can't believe it's a mistake because that would just be too painful. Unfortunately we don't know how painful supporting the war has to get before it becomes less painful for a majority of Americans to turn against it.

Sigh,

The Plaid Adder

[Mistress Quickly]

9. exactly

>>>Unfortunately we don't know how painful supporting the war has to get before it becomes less painful for a majority of Americans to turn against it.<<<

[LibDemAlways]

3. The only thing that mother can cling to

is the belief that her son died for some sort of worthy cause. For the chimp to cynically exploit her grief for the sake of a photo op is inexcusable.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. Support the troops- become one!

Seems Bush's road is turning decidedly uphill.... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1207677

[nostamj]

7. exactly! Support Bush? fine...

send him YOUR sons and daughters.

[bloom]

5. It came up in the show about marketing...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/rapaille.html


The Folgers (I think) coffee commercial with the soldier that comes home and his mother knows he is home by the smell of the coffee. It's about pushing people's emotional (and "reptilian") buttons.


I can't muster up sympathy for soldiers who come home and express contempt for Iraqis. It would be easier to have compassion for those who see the war as the travesty that it is.

[Plaid Adder]

6. Sure, it's easier.

Yeah, it is hard to take all that "shooting people is fun" bullshit. But, the way I look at it is, who knows what would happen to me if I got sent over there. I'd like to think I wouldn't develop racism as a coping mechanism, but I can't say for sure that I wouldn't. Having learned to see the world that way is a wound too, which it would be in our best interests to cure if we can do it.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[bloom]

10. If I were going to be noble

I would have compassion for B**h, Cheney, child molesters, torturers and so on and so forth, also.

I expect it would be more enlightened and all. The religious thing. We all have God in us, etc.

At the same time - it's nice to feel like there is distance between myself and "them". It's probably a coping mechanism, also.

Come to think of it - maybe it's exactly like soldiers who want to think they are better than the people they are shooting. (At least I'm not shooting anybody :) ).

[bloom]

13. selling the story.... "How does Folgers go about owning it?"

That's a very interesting question, because at the beginning they told me: "Coffee is a commodity. How can we own something that the others do not own?" My experience is that when there is a code, it's more complex than that. There is a code and a consistency checklist. Everything has to be on code. Everything you do should reinforce the code; not just the packaging or the communication should be on code. The leaflet, the brochures, everything should be on code. And if you are the first one to position yourself like that, knowing all the different aspects, you have a competitive edge. They might try to copy, but they don't know the formula; they don't know the code behind it.

For example, aroma is number one. Why? Because we imprint the aroma first, not the taste. Aroma is imprinted at a very early age, when you are around 2. Ah, and it means home, mother, feeding you, love and so on. A large majority, 90-something percent of Americans, love the aroma of coffee. Only 47 percent like the taste.

I don't know if you remember this commercial, but it was really on code. You have a young guy coming from the Army in a uniform. Mother is upstairs asleep. He goes directly to the kitchen, "Psssst," open the coffee, and the smell -- you know, because we designed the packaging to make sure that you smelled it right away. He prepares coffee; coffee goes up; the smell goes upstairs; the mother is asleep; she wakes up; she smiles. And we know the word she is going to say, because the code for aroma is "home." So she is going to say, "Oh, he is home." She rushed down the stairs, hugged the boy. I mean, we tested it. At P&G they test everything 400 times. People were crying. Why? Because we got the logic of emotion right.

"Home" hit the reptilian brain.

That was the reptilian brain, because that's your genes. If he was a neighbor, it would not have been the same impact. It was her son. He was coming back from the Army where he might have been killed. That's another key element of the reptilian -- survival, right? He is home, which means he's alive. He's my genes back home, back to my tummy, back to my mother. And that's why she hugs him. She doesn't just say, "Hello, how are you?" She puts him back to where he comes from. That's reptilian.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/rapaille.html

[Plaid Adder]

18. Marketing scares the shit out of me.

I just thought I would say that. These people, it's like they could take over the world if they...oh. Wait. They have. Never mind.

:scared:

The Plaid Adder

[flamingpie2500]

8. What that poor woman believes isn't important. She did what she thought

would be a great honor to her son. Did they even mention his name? I didn't watch this fiasco.
The important thing is what the living believe once they return home from the lie. My brother is in Tikrit now, he left on x-mas day, for 18 months. HE believes he is suppressing tyranny. I really fear for his psychological health once is tour is over, once he sees for himself the TRUTH behind the reason he is there. This has become a major problem for the boys and men and women returning home. Only the dead know the end to war, and noone will ever know what their thoughts were when they died.

[omega minimo]

11. Never Mind the Bollocks-- Here's the SOTU

Listener's description read on-air by Mike Malloy last night:

"The parents, there representing their son who died in Iraq, and all the other families of soldiers there. These people HAVE to believe in the legitimacy of this war.

It was clear that the mother was upset and fragile before they stood, as Bush announced them. She spontaneously reached forward and hugged the woman in front of her, next to The First Stepford Lady. She hugged tight the young Iraqi woman, her "father killed by Saddam Hussein," who had held up her "I voted" stained finger and gave the peace sign, trembling.

They held and cried with each other, the one true moment in the whole charade. When they parted, part of the mother's clothing caught on the younger woman's sleeve. They worked to free the tangle, and laughed a bit at the awkwardness. The most human moment in the whole cynical spectacle...

...and there stood Bush twitching and smirking and WAITING for it to be over. Couldn't wait for it to be over so he could continue his performance. Absolutely heartbreaking. It said it all."

[WilliamPitt]

12. Adder

I have posted this commentary on my blog:

http://truthout.org/fyi/

Very, very well said.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. I thought the most human moment in the whole cynical spectacle

as captured and described above in post 11 nailed all the pathos of that moment.

[omega minimo]

16. Pathos of the Moment

Pathos...
and most pathetic was Bush.

[MrScorpio]

15. One of the things I detest most about Bush

Is his tedency to use the military as background for his political endeavors.

I didn't wear the uniform for 22 years to prop up the political campaign of ANY president.

Especially one who does his best to both exploit and then screw over the Armed Forces and veterans at every turn.

Bravo, Plaid Adder.

[Dave Reynolds]

17. Did anyone happen to notice

that after the crying mother freed herself from the young Iraqi woman, the cameras cut back to her a few moments later and she was holding a PAPER CLIP?

I thought I was imagining things, so I asked my wife and she agreed that it indeed was a large paper clip.

I really hope that meant something.

[suegeo]

19. One of the biggest things I hate about these people...

I really hate that the unelected Bush Admin. uses our psychology (for lack of better phrasing) against us.

These fascists have been poking and prodding our minds for some time. Now, they're taking what they've learned, and they use it against us. Not only that, but they seem to exploit the demons in our nature, and never appeal to the better in us.

Their willingness to use our minds against us, in order to further their agenda (money power death), just pisses me off to no end.