VOTE or die

In reviewing posts from week 1, I was expecting almost everyone to say something along the lines of, “ I don’t have any family or friends serving in the war, but I am impacted as most of my life has been spent while we invaded the Middle East to cut back on terrorism.” In reality, most of the responses were very different, however I found each person was able to pinpoint one area of their life where they felt connected – the economy, politics or within friendships.
I was really affected by a statement someone had written, “The closest connection we have is the feeling of horror that invades our minds when we turn on the news and hear a new report of the daily casualties in Iraq. And yet, the war has still deeply affected me, not physically, emotionally, or mentally, but politically.” With today’s primary and the upcoming election, it seems the war has invaded out lives much more than we were expecting, especially since we are trying so hard to release troops. Now, as I am legally allowed to vote, I am sure my counterparts and I will be hearing much more about the war. The right to vote is one sure way we are connected to the war. It is evident that our vote will determine if we are able to bring troops back or continue fighting until we grow old.
It is safe to say that regardless of how the war has affected us over the past few years – in the economy, our families, and our education – we are all very much part of the war now. Voting for the next president will really determine how connected we are to war, whether we chose to be or not.

NFL Draft and War

The NFL Draft will be watched by millions people but what does it have to do with the war in Iraq? Simple the draft is a place for teams to find solutions to the their team needs. What does Iraq need? Yes, thats solutions for the problem. Every year young collegiate athletes attempt to find success in the NFL. While a small portion of collegiate athletes will find success in the NFL the war in Iraq will be solved by students coming out of college. Drafted by the Army, Navy, and Marines these young kids will solve the mess that we call Iraq. It's a crazy connection but I do some odd similarities in the war and our coming Draft.

Harold and Kumar...

With perfect timing, here comes Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantánamo Bay...

NYTs review here.

Can you say, "class trip"?

ER

Because I am a nursing major and love and show that has to do with a hospital, I find myself watching the weekly episode of ER. WIth the War in Iraq and Afganistan, and with any war many soldiers who do make it through war often deal with psychological problems. Are our hospitals equipped to deal with all the soldiers when they start having problems down the road. Are show that our popular today that we find ourselves watching all the time like ER and House going to start featuring cases/senerios of people who were at war now facing these psychological problems? Right now we are trying to deal with it, but are we doing enough to make sure that we will be ready when we need to start handling all these soldiers coming back from war in the future? I feel like this is something we do not this of. A soldier can come back from war without a scratch on him/her, but are they really ok?

ER

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Desperate Housewives: a show about a particular street in a particular neighborhood with more drama in one episode than most of us experience in a lifetime. There’s blackmail, people setting fires to other people’s houses, crazy people, people hiding their dead husbands in their freezer, people getting together, and then breaking up, and then getting back together again, people trying to kill other people, people succeeding in killing other people, and, well, you get the picture.
The point is that this show is all about survival. It’s about the characters doing questionable things to get what they want, even when it means stabbing their ‘friends’ in the backs. Everyone who has ever been on the show has their own motives that they intend to act upon regardless of how it affects other people. There aren’t really any ‘good guys’ in this television show.
The connection to the war in Iraq is this: America is over there for personal reasons without regard to the best interest of the country. We want oil at prices that suit us, and we’re doing a lot to achieve that goal. On the other hand, the terrorists we’re after aren’t exactly ‘innocents.’ It’s a case of everyone involved being in the wrong in some way.
The difference – neighbors fighting over everything imaginable is a lot more relatable to the American public than what we’re doing over in Iraq, and it’s a lot more entertaining, as well.

Another instance of a war in U.S. history in which the media has played a prominent role.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 is similar in many aspects to the War on Iraq in 2003. Both wars were carried out in order to rid the country of tyranny and both wars reflect the effects of the media on the public sentiment.

In the 1800’s, Cuba was a colony of Spain. Spanish leaders made laws for Cubans. Spanish soldiers in Cuba enforced these laws. The Cubans had little control over their own lives and freedom. In 1868, the Cubans rebelled against the Spanish rule. Cuban revolutionary groups wanted their independence from Spain. The United States supported these rebels. In January 1898, riots in Havana, Cuba, destroyed shops and endangered U.S. citizens living there. Rumors also spread that Spanish soldiers planned to murder U.S. citizens. At the time, William McKinley was president of the United States. He did not want to start a war with Spain. But McKinley wanted to prevent U.S. citizens from being harmed in Cuba. McKinley ordered the battleship Maine to sail to Havana's harbor. McKinley hoped its presence would prevent U.S. citizens from being harmed. On February 15, 1898, an explosion erupted in Havana's harbor. This explosion sunk the Maine and killed 266 sailors aboard the ship. U.S. Navy investigators could not discover what caused the explosion.

Many people in the United States blamed the explosion on Spain. U.S. newspapers ran stories accusing Spain of sinking the Maine. These stories were untrue. But many U.S. citizens believed them and wanted the United States to go to war with Spain. Many U.S. politicians also spoke against Spain. They supported Cubans in their revolution. In April 1898, McKinley asked Congress to declare war on Spain. Today, historians point to the Spanish-American War as the first press-driven war. Although it may be an exaggeration to claim that Hearst and the other yellow journalists started the war, it is fair to say that the press fueled the public's passion for war. Without sensational headlines and stories about Cuban affairs, the mood for Cuban intervention may have been very different. Although Spanish mistreatment of Cuban locals was certainly a more common occurrence than was remotely acceptable, it was greatly over-exaggerated and over-used by reporters.

However, the single most influential and newspaper-exploited event in the process of bringing the United States into a state of war was media coverage of the mysterious and unexplained explosion of the U.S.S. Maine. Immediately after, many newspapers (particularly those such as Hearst's Journal that commonly practiced certain aspects of yellow journalism) carried headlines such as "Remember the Maine!" and articles immediately accusing the Spanish for the destruction. Some even went so far as to make up detailed stories, stressing that it must have been a mine or torpedo (delivered by, of course, the Spanish) that caused the deaths of two-hundred and fifty-two American soldiers. Within days, headlines became so blunt as to say "War? Sure!" With pressure on the government from the people, the press, and eventually even on certain parts of the government itself, a state of war came into effect on April 25, 1898 (made retroactive to April 22, 1898). Armies were mobilized, emergency funds were allocated, and ports were blockaded, marking the beginning of the Spanish-American War.

In the ongoing Iraq conflict, there is a growing realization among mainstream newsmen that they have failed the American public. Critics agree the role of the press in the war against Iraq has been to deter dissenting opinions and to be "cheerleaders" for the ongoing battle. Any attempt at objectivity was abandoned once the bombs started dropping and was replaced with one-sided and overly patriotic sentiments. Equally disturbing in the media war coverage was the reporting of Iraqi civilian casualties, and the framing that occurred to discern between U.S. and Iraqi actions. In an interview on April 2, 2003, with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!, Norman Solomon commented on the reporting of Iraqi casualties.

Amy Goodman pointed out that, "In the news Iraqi civilian casualties get almost no attention, whereas U.S. casualties are carefully documented." "The visible anger of Iraqi people has roots in events that usually get described in antiseptic and euphemistic terms by U.S. media outlets," said Solomon.

"With a straight face, and a scant willingness to raise fundamental questions, American networks uncritically relay nonstop barrage of statements from U.S. officials that portray deadly Iraqi actions as heinous and deadly American actions as positive. They have "death squads," and we have noble troops. Their bombs are odious; ours are remedies for tyranny."

One can easily see a difference in the public sentiment regarding the war. The Spanish-American War was a successful venture of the U.S. Army; however, they haven’t enjoyed the same levels of success in Iraq which could partly be the reason people have a negative outlook towards the War on Iraq. There are still issues of security and stability in Iraq. A non-Iraqi can possibly argue that life in Iraq after Saddam Hussein has improved for the Iraqis, but in reality does anybody apart from those living there really know the answer? Reports from the news corporation BBC-UK provide disturbing insight into the life in Iraq post the Saddam Hussein regime, to say the least.

I find it unsettling that the Iraqis have to watch their homeland get blown into smithereens by external forces, even if it meant getting Saddam Hussein out of the way. There are numerous reports of North Korea possessing WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and what’s bothering me is that the U.S. Government has simply “strongly condemned” this. This brings the following questions to my mind: Why the polite behavior in this case and what next? Will the U.S. and her allies be at war with North Korea too? In the unlikely event that it happens, I don’t think it’s not going to be as easy as invading Iraq in any case because, let’s face it, they probably have nukes at their disposal waiting to retaliate if even a paper rocket so much as approaches 50 miles of their boundary, which translated in layman’s terms means chances are they won’t be as powerless as Iraq. I could be wrong but that’s my two cents on the matter.

Terrorists and Obesity

After 9-11, the feeling of eliminating terrorism spread everywhere. To stop terrorism, we must go after the terrorists. To stop terrorists, we may have to go to war. It seems as though everyone nowadays has an anti-war attitude and wants to quickly pull out of the Middle East. They want to pull out of the war, and still dont want terrorists (even though our goal has not been reached in the Middle East).

Just like the terrorist problem, America has an obesity problem. We sometimes tend to have a lazy and inactive lifestyle. America loves its food, but hates the fat. The only way to get rid of the fat is to eat healthy and exercise. Thats right...no more McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, pizza at the Handschumacher Dining Center...you get the point. We want to have a sexy body, but most people dont want to do the work to get it.

People want the results without doing the work. In order to eliminate terrorism, we must get rid of it at its root, even if it means war. In order to eliminate fat and health problems, we must live a healthy lifestyle, even if it means giving up some things we love. The attitude of giving up is widespread in America. We give up on the war on terror and we give up on our health.

CSI

The first show that popped into my head was CSI. I know so many people that are huge fans of the show and in more than one episode, war has come up into conversations. One episode I remember specifically I believe is from the Miami series. There is a solider that was killed in Iraq and his brother thinks that he emptied his gun into him on accident but there was only one bullet in his brother. It turned out that these contractors had been over in Iraq because it's a free trip and they get paid a lot to do work over there and one of them had actually shot the guy. He was in such a rush to get away from the gun fire that he didn't realize that he had done it but he saw the guy go down and instead of trying to help him, he just drove off. If he had helped him there was a chance that he could have lived. The contractor made the comment that it was a war zone out there and that the CSI guys didn't understand so he responded that I'm sure the man he shot understands. He was doing everything to fight for his country and this contractor, who was also his friend, ended up killing him. I know this isn't a ridiculous connection really but I found it very interesting because I know there are a few times that they bring up the war in Iraq. They also talk about terrorism a lot and other current issues like illegal immigration. I think that it's good for shows to use current issues in their stories because it makes it more interesting. I find them intriguing even if it isn't a true story, mostly because you kind-of know what's going on and maybe could see something happening like the story they tell. I know there are also other shows with refrences to Iraq and terrorism as well. I just love the stories that they come up with for CSI. There are some pretty twisted stories and they try to make it someone you didn't suspect. In the episode I mentioned you didn't suspect the contractor because you didn't even know they were in Iraq because they weren't suppose to be there, it was like a secret mission.

Blog 4

The War in Iraq has created many changes in American society. The recent spike in the population of viewers to American Idol. Do people have a need to watch American Idol because they are so sick of daily life and the war. Are we sick of hearing the news repeating how some type of bomb or attack has killed American troops. I know it seems far fetched but American Idol's mindless visual attraction has seemed to grow as the war in Iraq grows older. I remember that American Idol started to become popular when the Iraqi war had Started. Further research can probably prove my point.

Magnolia

Paul Thomas Anderson both wrote and directed the feature film Magnolia It intertwined around nine major characters into something like a three hour movie that you won't lose attention too. It's hard to believe but not many films can keep your attention for so long and continually build up like it does. The cinematography is the best I've seen in a movie to this day and helps the movie be as successful as it is. The underlying theme of these 9 interwoven stories is that weird stuff does happen. That real life events are ironically more 'out there' and unbelievable than what most people tend to see in movies and TV. Ever watch a movie and say something like "psh! that would never happen in real life." chances are something even weirder already has. For example in the graphic novel and recently released movie 300, the boy enters "manhood" after he goes into the wilderness to kill a wolf. In reality the "rite of passage" for young spartan boys was to sneak out and kill a slave without anyone knowing who did it. If that was in the movie people would be like "WTF?" but instead Frank Miller wrote something more believable and less morally wrong.

All this got me thinking is about the stories i hear all the time about things that go on in Iraq. Like when a famous person is not only killed while serving his country but he is supposedly killed by friendly fire. It's stranger than fiction... it's real life.

American Gladiator

No show on television encapsulates the physical aspect of war better than American Gladiators. Contestants go head to head with trained athletes in rounds that include mountain climbing, running, getting shot at with tennis balls, getting tackled, rope climbing, and of course the infamous obstacle course. Most of these are training exercises used by the army. American Gladiator is the classic underdog story. The average, everyday person battles with professional athletes. This is very similar to the original gladiators of Rome. Spectators watched men battle to their deaths. People are still very fascinated by violence. Whether it be American Gladiator on tv, or movies like Hostel in theaters, people are still as entertained by violence as the were back when public hangings were common.

An attempt to convey a message!

The movie kingdom directed by Peter Berg depicts a story of an American investigation group which is deployed in the middle-east to investigate bomb explosion of an American facility. The attack was carried out by a terrorist group based around the city, with the intension of causing chaos within the community. It was targeted at a group of American families on a park. The main initiator of the explosion watches his plan from a building at a distance to the bomb site. His son records the agony faced by Americans.

This is what the children of Iraqi and Afghan terrorists see everyday when their fathers go to the battle field. This is their day to day experience and by now, they have been trained, and convinced well enough to initiate a similar kind of war in the future. The depression, injustice faced by young children will surely affect their lives when they grow up. The director gives this message to the viewers. Americans will never give up in fighting. The leader of the terrorist group dies at the end of the movie, and his message to his child was, ‘take the revenge, never give up’ which simply means that terrorists will never stop fighting against America. The picture of war we see today will be much similar or even more intense in the near future. This war has influenced directly to the production of this movie. The director makes an attempt to convey this message.

SENASH

Effect of War on Pop culture.

The effect of War on the American pop culture can be most easily seen in the 2007 album of the band Linkin Park, named ‘Minutes to Midnight’. In my opinion, the cover song of the album named ‘What I’ve done’ is easily the most relevant song for the topic because, the lyrics of the song have a lot of meaning in them which isn’t apparent at a glance but which becomes increasingly clearer with each listening. I think the whole idea behind the title of the new album "Minutes to Midnight" can be interpreted as the awaiting for the dawn of a new day, because once a clock hits midnight, 'it's a whole new day' so to speak, which can very much symbolize a lot of people's desire to start afresh once more. The lyrics of the song can also be viewed as portraying the general feeling of confusion, emptiness and frustration that all people worldwide and particularly Americans, due to the deeply unpopular War on Iraq and the economy’s dismal economic slowdown, are currently suffering from. A lot of people are voicing their interest in ending the War on Iraq and they seem to feel that it probably would have been wiser not to have engaged in a war at all, in the first place. The War has generally made the masses more insecure about the future and more uncertain about solving the problems that lay in store for them. The lyrics of the song ‘What I’ve Done’ from the band Linkin Park encompasses this very idea of recognizing the faults of the past, and suggests moving on with the future in order to make progress. The fact that a lot of people listen to music implies that inspirational messages such as these will touch base with a lot more people than through the other mediums such as the print media.

Kanye West Words Against War

The war in Iraq has greatly influence artists. It has affected tv, movies, fashion, but most importantly music. Music, especially rap/hip hop has taken a new style and more serious tone as rappers switch from the lyrics about the glamorous life of superstardom, but to more serious issues about war and violence. Music has been greatly affected by the war in Iraq, and in turn has effected all of America and its listeners. A bigger message is now being sent, not about women or girls, money and fame, but about violence and war, and hardships and death. Kanye West is a great example of an artist, but more so a role model as he sends his message clear that he is against war and violence. His songs stand true to his message as he speaks about war, about terrorism, and more importantly war with ourselves. In his most popular song "Jesus Walks" he sings "Yo, We at warWe at war with terrorism, racism, and most of all we at war with ourselves." He brings dark issues into the light and allows those who choose to be ignorant be informed about what is going on with war.

Celebrity Rehab

In a weird way I feel like Celebrity Rehab relates to the war. The reason I feel this way is because so many celebrities, once known for their great achievements are either dead right now, or in rehab for using and abusing drugs. When most people come out of the war they have no idea what to do with themselves, such as those suffering from PTSD. They have been great war veterans and fighting was their life, but now they are haunted by the many scenes and positions they faced and they feel that the only way to subdue that is to use drugs. This shows how some celebrities are more open to express/show their experiences to society and resembles how some war veterans easily open up about their experiences and want help to move on from their horrid visions/experiences.

Real World Lives On

As the war in Iraq has trudged on, young people have clearly been exposed to the horrors of war. As most of the men and women who are in the military over in Iraq are in there twenties, it is clear that their experience have had a direct effect on pop culture. One connection I find most intriguing is the effect the war in Iraq has had on the MTV show Real World.

Real World has been an MTV cornerstone show for over a decade now. In today’s reality show infatuated era, it is odd to have the same reality show, different seasons and casts obviously, running on air for such a long period of time.

I deem that the show has seen such great success because the effects young soldiers have faced in Iraq. The media’s daily reports show young people dying overseas everyday. Because of this people are eager to tune in to MTV’s Real World show and watch people getting drunk and having fun with no cares in the world. It allows viewers to believe, just for a half hour a week, that somewhere in the world, a place exists where young people can kick back and half fun with not a care in the world.

The gauntlet

One of my favorite shows on tv is MTV's The Gauntlet. This show is about reality tv people that come together to compete in a string of activites. There are two teams that compete and it is always very competitive. The show points out the leadership qualities and people that are able to do each of the events. It is a mix between physical and mental tasks. The way the show is set up one can belive that it was compared to the military and the way they work. Th military always livs in one area, the barracks and so do the people on the gauntlet. Another similarity is that the tasks that are to be completed are both mentally and physically taxing, not exactly what the military goes through in war but the idea is being put across. The last major smilarity that I see is the leadership that is shown int he people through time. This is compared to the leadership in the military. Also, the constant commercials for the marines makes the comparison a little easier.

Go Green!

In today’s culture, it is plain to see that everyone wants to “go green” from the car industry to clothing stores like the gap. The world has a fixed amount of resources and today more than ever, you are constantly reminded. This may be because we need to learn how to become less dependent on foreign countries for resources. I feel as if the war with Iraq has reeved up the incentive of going green. Gas prices are constantly increasing as well as many of other products that we need but at the same time our dollar’s value falls. This war has impacted our culture by making us more aware of our need and reliance on resources. It also has made many companies re-imagine their business strategies and tactics. Recently I just got a new job and I was looking through the new hire brochure and I seen “Go Green” right on top of a page. As I read more, it wasn’t about how economically friendly the company was but actually how the company thinks about making money. I was surprised that they would use this term in this context. Money is green and people love money. And with money comes power. This green initiative may have been started because of our nations greed and demand to become self-sufficient.

Spurlock: Where's bin Laden?

Morgan Spurlock, the guy who made Super Size Me, is coming out with a new movie called Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? He travels to Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Afghanistan to show us a different side of Islam: the non-violent side. He was hoping to find Osama and try to show him that killing many people isn’t cool. A preview showed him in an Israeli classroom that a rocket hit hours earlier. He says that he couldn’t imagine raising his kid in such a dangerous place. The movie should be cool to watch, since he goes right into these dangerous places and gives us a more human perspective of the Middle East. Most of the news we get about that region involves huge amounts of violence and unrest, especially with our troops in two countries. It looks like Spurlock is helping us find out what’s going on besides the war, and how people over there feel about the fighting and the US. It’s something I would want to see, so that I can know more about those countries than what articles on CNN and news programs have to offer.

blog 4: Iraq war and TV show

In TV show Smallville has made Lex Luthor an ultimate villain now. He murders his dad, just to get what he wants. In this case, smallville did go sort of little bit different from superman mythology. Then I realized that its so much similar to recent War in Iraq. Osama Bin Laden did go against his family, in order to get what he wants. He is an ultimate enemy, which is what Lex Luthor turns into. As you can see that war has made impact on pop culture and it will continue to.

My Dad is Better than your Dad

In a test of brains and brawn children everywhere are trying to sign their father figures up for NBCs new action pack family friendly show "My Dad is Better Than Your Dad". The military is based on these same principals of brains and brawn. Given success in both of the categories one will be able to defend their country (or family in the case of this show) in the best possible manner. Success in the military is gauged on your rank and honor, similarly, the show ranks fathers after every round and eliminates the weakest link. This principal of elimination is seen in the battlefield. When you are ill prepared some soldiers will be killed in the battlefield or not pass through boot camp.

Television show and War

I havent kept track of television shows in years; however, I do go on to tv network's website and watch episodes of sitcoms once in a while. One sitcom that was definitely an impact of terrorism and Iraq war is "Aliens In America". This show depicted our reaction to MiddleEastern people since the 9/11 event. The main character in the show who just recently came from Pakistan as an international student experienced bias such as being a suicide bomber. Another main character at the same time tries to show the international student American life. This in fact is sort of teaching people to embrace people of all races and not to blame others of another's wrong doing, something that happened in 1940s when the Japanese were sent to concentrated camps.

My boy Perez

A new cultural phenomenon has been born-- Perez Hilton.

For those out there that do not know who Perez Hilton is, I suggest you Google him, and then visit his website. I feel that Perez has affected both the American public and our pop culture. Over the last few months, Perez has jumped from being another gossip blogger to being on MTV, VHI1, on the radio, in magazines etc.

I believe that there are ties between Perez and the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the past few years, the American public has broken the bind between themselves and sites like CNN.com or MSNBC.com and have moved on to websites like PerezHilton.com. I believe that this happened because people were too overwhelmed with constantly hearing about what is going on overseas-- they need an escape from the real world, so why not go bum around on Perez's site? This site provides trivial and unimportant information about celebrities and their doings; it allows people to get away from the information about Iraq etc and focus on something else.

War and Television\

I have definitely noticed how prevalent war is in the movies and on television. I definitely see more subtle references to the war in Iraq on television. It seems that almost every TV show has some kind of connection to Iraq, and sometimes, you do not even realize the connection because of how much the war in Iraq is in our lives. For example, I always used to watch a show on the WB called 7th Heaven. The storyline was about a minister and his wife who had 7 kids and every one of their kids dealt with every kind of problem that any viewer could relate to. Once the war in Iraq started, there were always different episodes with one of the kids friends having a parent who was fighting in Iraq, or some other connection. After a while, it becomes so common that they know someone in Iraq or someone who has been affected by the War in Iraq that the viewer does not even notice it. I think that this shows how the war has gone on so long, that now most people have either had a family member in Iraq, or know someone with a family member in Iraq.