Brian Williams on Leno: Americans don't really care one way or another about Gitmo

[HopeOverFear]

He said it could take years for Gitmo to close, that it's "out of sight out of mind" for most Americans and that, afterall...."9/11"!

:eyes:

[Colobo]

1. He might not care. I do.

[Butch350]

14. Funny. I Don't! And everyone sitting at my work place right now...

DON'T CARE ABOUT GITMO EITHER! So there you go!

[Trocadero]

2. Brian Williams is a brain-addled old man.

[Harry Monroe]

17. Old man?

I will say he is brain addled and is speaking for the media, not for the people when he says that America (his America, not ours) doesn't care about Gitmo, but I wouldn't call him "old". He is only 50 and middle aged at best. I'm 47, so get off my fucking lawn youngster!! How old are you?

[LittleBlue]

3. I actually agree

Most do not. The majority are sheeple, and even after all the shit we've been through, 47% still voted for the party that dragged us down to hell.

[Butch350]

15. Great. Call people names - when you have no point.

[bluestateguy]

4. If you are worried about your job or your house, it's kind of hard to worry about a prison in Cuba

That does not mean we should not close it, but he's right: the issue is only high up on the radar screen of anti-war activists, civil libertarians and neo-con Cheney apologists. That adds up to about 30% of the population, I figure.

[vadawg]

5. bingo, correct, i dont know anyone who cares about gitmo, unless they think the prisoners will be

released, then they have strong opinions. In reality people dont care.

[Clio the Leo]

6. I doubt very few in my social circle could even tell you where it is. NT

[HelenWheels]

12. You need a new social circle. nt

[Clio the Leo]

13. But they're so cute and cuddly. NT

[Connie_Corleone]

7. Well, he's right.

The only place I hear about Gitmo is on political websites and cable news channels.

People I meet and talk to never mention Gitmo. Trying to pay the bills and keeping their jobs are more important to them.

[jehovas_waitress]

16. Word for word the post I was going to write.. N/T

[DrToast]

8. He's right, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't care about it.

[JI7]

9. the whore media wants Americans to care about missing white women

[Garbo 2004]

10. So what? More Americans likely care more about American Idol than NBC News w Brian Williams...he's

not going to denigrate the value of news programs, including his own, and fold his tent and go home based on that.

[Maccagirl]

11. Williams is factually correct

and that says volumes.

[EndElectoral]

18. Most Germans didn't really care about what happened at Auschwitz or Buchenwald either.

What the hell is wrong with Brian Williams. you only report on nice stories thatpeople want to hear?

This man isn't a journalist. He's a model lip reading.

[Perky]

19. Most Germans did not what was going on.

Nad to equate Gitmo with Auchwitz is stunningly over the top. Ike marched the whole town of Auchwitz out to see what was going on under their noses. Made them dig graves. Most had no idea.

There is no genocide. We are not attempting to wipe out a race or a generation

I am not defending what we are doing, but there is a parsec of difference

[Honeycombe8]

20. He's probably right. I care, but not much. I take people's word...

that it is a big deal to jihadists and is being used as a recruiting tool.

[Kaleva]

21. True. Just like the torture issue and Iraq War

It's not on the front burner for most people.

[mmonk]

22. And does he take responsibility for any of that?

[AlCzervik]

23. So did he admit that his newscast hasn't been very informative? Brian Williams is

a Putterman.

[HopeOverFear]

24. How about that? He just admitted he's a shitty tv journalist nm

[AlCzervik]

25. he's an automaton, his last job was at Disney at The Country bears Jamboree.

[annabanana]

26. He is part of the problem... n/t

[Occam Bandage]

27. He's right. DUers care. Freepers care. People more concerned about their jobs and families don't. nt

[Cha]

28. Brian Williams doesn't know

shit and I'm glad I missed him..I saw him sitting over there on the sofa next to Kris Allen, who I did listen to and I'm sure I got more veracity out of him.

[omega minimo]

29. The GENBC News Anchor said that on the GENBC stupid-not-funny late night talk show?

:wow:

[SoCalDem]

30. He's right.

Most people are worried about making their house payment, keeping their jobs, and wondering how they can hold onto their health insurance.

What happens to a bunch of "foreign would-be assassins" is not at the top of their "worry-list"..

Our society believes in punishment for "bad deeds" and of "bad people". It's what our whole justice system is built upon.

Bush-Cheney knew this, as does our current government..

Most people do not commit crimes or go out of their way to harm other people, BUT they DO advocate harsh treatment of people who wrong THEM..

Treating an adversary with compassion and with an intent to rehabilitate, so as to welcome them back to society, takes a nuanced mind and an intellectual perspective. We have lost that (if we ever even had them).

Another problem we have is that the definition of "soldier" has changed immeasurably since WWII.
Insurgents/guerrillas/freedom-fighters ARE "soldiers" even though they do not wear a uniform, or answer to an official government. We will probably never again fight a war against another "uniformed" adversary.

Twenty-first century warfare has evolved, and our adversaries are different. When a person or a band of people group together and set out to kill our troops or other people, to advance their own agenda (in an effort to control space,land, population) they ARE an army, and their "uniform" is actually the NON-uniforms they wear. Their military tactic is subtrafuge & terror, because they do not have the equipment or numbers to defeat a larger military.

When the locals in the colonies hid behind trees, and mimicked the actions of the Native Americans they fought beside, they were still soldiers.

George Washington's men may have worn uniforms, but in or out of uniform the colonists who rose up were soldiers, and when caught, were treated like soldiers captured.

We are NOT good at fighting a guerrilla war.. WEe have known this for a long time, and yet we keep trying. Re-naming the people we capture does not change the facts. Call them enemy combatants, dangerous people, whatever.. they are soldiers, and as long as the "war" exists, they are POWs. It's OUR fault that we called the whole thing a "war" in the first place, because we elevated the people attacking us to levels they should never have achieved.

[braunfels]

31. Brian Williams = Iraq cheerleader

Williams was one of the first media types to jump on the bandwagon to go to war with Iraq. He still believes that getting rid of Saddam was worth all the blood and treasure it has cost.