It was one of those pieces in which a question - in this case, 'how do you think the effort in Iraq is going?' - is asked of folks sitting in diners, barber shops and shopping at Wal Mart in locations across the country. Usually, for what is taken to be 'balance', they interview a few working class people, then move to a neighborhood described as "upscale".
If I'm remembering correctly, people in a small town near a military installation in Mississippi, and neighborhoods in Boston and Chicago were the three locations chosen.
I have no idea how NPR went about choosing the participants and even by their own admission it wasn't a 'scientific sampling' (a comforting phrase if ever there was) but there was an interesting theme that may have implications.
Without exception and to varying degrees of intensity, people expressed dismay and confusion over how the Iraqis, whom we have 'liberated', could repay our selflessness with violence and anger. Even people who stated an objection to the war and talked about the missing WMDs with disdain got around to this.
This is understandable; after all, our girls and boys are getting shot at and killed. I know a couple of guys who are there and I'm not too happy about the situation they're in. But the near total lack of empathy for the Iraqi situation amongst the interviewees was prominent and led them to conclude that there was just something wrong with the Iraqi people. Something so wrong that they're taking up arms against the good hearted heroes in their midst.
One woman, one of the 'liberals' in Boston as I recall, explained it all away as being the result of the emotional trauma the Iraqis suffered during the long years of Hussein tyranny. According to her, these people are so scarred that like abused children, they're lashing out at the very people trying to help them. A very tidy theory which brings id, ego and superego, along with repressed memory syndrome and other stuff I can't think of into the occupation mix.
This trickles up to Dubya who is seen, being the leader of this righteous effort, as a good man.
Ironically, there are surely a large number of soldiers who would describe the President using spicier language that would shock the innocents at home.
DRM
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