No Sign of War?

Posted on September 12, 2006 in Campaign 2006 Occupation of Iraq

From a fundraising note by John Kerry:

Recently, John “Randy” Kuhl, a Republican incumbent House member from New York, returned from a visit to Iraq. He reported that things were going well. In fact, he says he almost forgot he was in a war zone.

I can’t tell you whether that hard-to-believe comment reflects his disconnect with reality or his refusal to level with the people he represents. But, I can tell you this: No one who knows what it really means to be in a war zone would talk like that.

I think I can guess why Kuhl didn’t catch on to Iraq reality. Back in 1992, I went to former Yugoslavia on a manic attempt to establish myself as a freelance journalist. What I learned is that within a few miles of the front lines, you can’t see the war. What I saw were miles and miles of tobacco and corn fields, farmers going about their business. In Zagreb, the only signs of the war were patriotic posters and, in Beograd, antiwar posters.

The moral of the story is that you can get away from where the battles are happening quite easily and not have to leave the country.

I bet Kuhl went nowhere near the front lines. I bet he stayed in Bagdad’s secure zone. The military was careful, I wager, to steer him clear of danger. So Kuhl never saw the war and didn’t know the subtle signs — like the occasional heavily-armed soldier in the streets — that people were shooting each other in Iraq, that the country was not at peace.

We can’t have a Congress made up of ignorant men and women like this.

See also VoteVets.org