Americans a bit too removed

The AM airwaves are now awash with the new college football season. ESPN leaves no yard marker unturned. Pundits and “experts” spent hours on end discussing issues like the moral failings and character flaws of “Johnny Football” signing autographs during his off season.

What if ESPN hosted “ESPN War Day”? Pundits could review our latest drone strikes and offer eulogies to the women and children ripped apart by our latest drone attacks. And our courtiers could debate next weeks targets and discuss the merits of each anticipated attack. We could host the “War time medical hour” and have an enthusiastic panel discuss the impact of depleted uranium munitions on the Iraqi population and discuss the positive aspects of Iraq’s soaring cancer rates. We could showcase the ESPN War Day “Top 25 terror threats” and rank which country will be hit next.

The great Mideast journalist Robert Fisk lamented that in our land of illusion the closest Americans will get to what our perpetual slaughters have wrought is renting “Saving Private Ryan.” This is why a ESPN War Day show has such value. We will see the human toll of our on-going bombing of Third World peoples and it would allow pundits the opportunity to explain with high moral conviction why blowing up woman and children is a crucial component of democracy promotion. “A point never fully grasped by our victims in their death thrones.” ESPN War Day may not be able to tackle the haunting issues like Johnny Manziel’s signing autographs. However, it would allow us the opportunity to see how our “war on terror” and democracy promotion works. And that reality might throw a powerful monkey wrench into the propaganda machine that has made us the most illusioned and war-prone people on the planet.

Jim Sawyer

Edmonds

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