"Iraq is not as bad as the news says"

[GreenPartyVoter]

This was repeated to me by a woman whose son just came home from serving over there. (I'm not sure where)

But then she said they offered him the chance at his first command if he went back or a lateral move here at home doing paperwork.

He picked the paperwork.

BUT, he still has to go back in September.

[benburch]

1. She needs to believe that to not despair

And her son sugar coated everything for her.

[Jade Fox]

2. That's what is known as damning with faint praise.....n/t

[indigobusiness]

3. Depends on if you have sewage coming from your taps...

providing your taps haven't been blown to smithereens by an errant smartbomb...along with your family, etc.

Matter of perspective, I'd say.

[theorist]

4. I wonder...

if the tables were turned--100,000++ dead Americans after an imperialist invasion--we would be using phrases like "not as bad as the news says". There's an obvious lack of perspective in warfare, and I'm sure she's saying this as a coping method.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. And since Iraq has less than a tenth of the US's population,

if the tables were turned, more than a million Americans would be dead.

Like you say, I'm sure this must be a mother's coping mechanism.

[wuushew]

5. The news ideally does not deal in opinion

the fact that X number of GIs died or this or that tsunami was of given magnitude are objective facts. Matters of good or bad are reserved for useless editorializing and punditry.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Well what he told her was that there were some hotspots but

that in most areas of the country people were really grateful.


Hmmmm... where have we heard this before?