Photo courtesy John McCain 2008 - www.JohnMcCain.com
Republican presidential nominee, John McCain
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and could spark some interesting conversation here on DJ.
The article looks at why McCain keeps his popularity in the face of a long-standing war in Iraq that many Americans disprove of. Forget the Left-wing VS. Right-Wing in this sense and check out the thesis of this post:
McCain is offering us the war in Iraq just the way Ronald Reagan offered us the war on drugs. Both are wars that can never be won in any practical sense. But it's not about winning. It's about keeping up the fight. Because in both cases the "war" is theater. It's a show of moral clarity and certainty. And the show must go on.
The "war on drugs" has been going on for decades now. Every year it claims thousands of jailed victims and several billion of our tax dollars. No one who looks at the evidence can seriously think that all this will actually stop people from using drugs illegally.
Then comes some spin:
The war in Iraq -- and perhaps every war the United States fights -- is just as much a staged spectacle as the war on drugs. Most Americans are not interested in the complexities of Iraqi political infighting.
[...]
McCain and his campaign strategists understand (either consciously or just intuitively) that war is theater. They know how to write a script that evokes the mythic scenarios that have framed the discourse of American identity since colonial times. It's more than merely a script about good against evil.
Whether you support McCain or not, do you agree with this article's position, comparing the War in Iraq to the War on Drugs?
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