Soldiers in PropagandaLand

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 10:37 AM on March 22, 2006.

Welcome Crooks and Liars... readers.

Dreadcow, a soldier in Iraq, tells the story of (his words, not mine) "[being] fed nothing but propaganda." I quote him at length, the story is powerful:

"So I’m on the phone with my parents a while back, just shooting the shit about random stuff. Bitching about how I wish I would have asked for an earlier leave date, asking about people back home and the weather, discussing options for the new truck I’ll be buying after Iraq..."

Me: "I sure miss home, I really would like some snow just to see it for once… so how’s Grandma/rest of family/friends… it’s starting to warm up here finally, how’s it back home?... I think a Silverado would do it… I would love a Mohito right now… well, the tattoos are gunna look like the pictures I sent you... yeah, it started when I needed to stay awake during driving, then I just kept doing it…"

Parents: "Well, everyone misses you. People ask about you all the time and how you’re doing. Your Dad is sick right now. The weather is miserable; it’s below zero in Minneapolis right now. Iraq almost fell into civil war today. You sure you want to buy a truck with these gas prices? When you get home we’ll get you wasted on Margaritas.

Me: "Come again?"

Parents: "Oh, I was saying with gas prices over two bucks a gallon, are you sure you want to get a truck?"

Me: "No, the civil war part."

That was the first I’d heard about the mosque getting blown up and this was two or three days after it happened. I’m IN Iraq and have no idea what’s going on.... the way our media talks about the war it sounds like a stroll through Candy Land. A hot, dusty, ghetto Candy Land. The muffin man lives in downtown Baghdad in a mud house that has a plastic tarp for a door and in his spare time watches bakery porn on satellite television.

...

I can tell you that this place isn’t Candy Land. Car bombs are going off killing civilians, people are blowing up mosques, the kidnapping and subsequently beheading of people, these fuckers don’t wear identifiable uniforms, and friends of friends are getting killed over here. I personally find it insulting that what little amount of news I’m given isn’t realistic. I feel like the main character in "Clockwork Orange" with his eyelids held open while being brainwashed.

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.