A reader writes:
As a combat vet, I'm all for more graphic coverage. I was with the Army's 1st AD in Ar Ramadi in '06 and '07 during some of the heaviest fighting. I don't want the public to live in ignorance of what we're doing over there while at the same time sitting as transfixed sheeple in front of American Idol. I want to rub the people's collective nose in it.
"You see what you're sending us to do? You see who is dying because you support a war in a part of the world you know nothing about?" The ignorance of the population is so vast that when I was deploying to Iraq and (thankfully) coming back, as I passed through Atlanta-Hartfield, people would congratulate me and my fellow servicemembers, shake our hands, say thanks, etc., and all I wanted to do was scream at them, "Get educated you ignoramus! This isn't a great thing; it's futile!" I've calmed down a lot since then, but the ramp up in Afghanistan is getting me spooled up again. America still has no clue, and doesn't want a clue, about what we're doing over there.