Lovely, intelligent soldier's wife asked, "What's a neo-con?"

[lostnfound]

Struck up a conversation with a woman whose husband is in Iraq. She's a wonderful, graceful young lady with intelligent eyes and a gentle attitude towards those around her. She says she appreciates that I "support the troops" -- because I pitched in with a few dollars to help ship some care packages to some soldiers. I feel sorry for these people so far from home, in the heat, in the fear, sent there by an idiotic president owned by certain greedy and extreme factions in our society.

Recently I started reading Greg Palast's new book "Armed Madhouse.." so I told her how the Bush Administration had TWO plans for Iraq -- one by the traditional conservatives who wanted a 3 day coup and one by the neo-cons, who wanted to remake the whole economy in Iraq.

"Neo-what?" she said.

"The neo-cons.." I said. "Neoconservatives".

"Neo..that means new, right? That's "new conservatives"? she asked.

Oh. My.

Well, where on earth to begin. I told her about the neocons wanting to remake the economy and privatize the national industries especially oil.

She asked a reasonable question about whether or not it was realistic to think that a 3 day coup was even possible. I told her about Mossadegh, how he had been popular even in the west, but then he nationalized the oil industry, and the CIA or OSS sent in Kermit Roosevelt. Her eyes grew wide when I talked about Kermit hiring young men to act like thugs on the street, breaking windows and assaulting people, and amazed when I talked about bribing editors. I don't know if her eyes were wide thinking that I was crazy or wide thinking how awful it was. But she said she was thinking about all the wars since the beginning of time, and she said that she was interested in what I was saying.

Finally she asked "so..you don't think this war is winnable, do you?"

I told her "I'm sorry to say, but no, I don't think it's winnable. I don't think any war is winnable." I also told her that wars have changed in the last 100 years or so, that a historian has figured out that old wars used to kill mostly soldiers and some civilians; while new wars kill mostly civilians and some soldiers. And that so many civilians had died in Iraq that it was the equivalent of like 600,000 people dying in the United States. And I told her that falling back to my Christian upbringing, believe it or not, I think that love is the only way to fix this mess of a world. And that the really scary thing to me was that whole countries fall into this idea that any war they are fighting could be a war of good vs evil. Wars of good and evil might be fought in heaven, but I believe in the quote by Carl Jung that "the line between good and evil runs through every man's heart".

We talked about how the war has changed her life and changed her husband, and how she has come to realize just how many lives are changed in war -- entire families, not only soldiers.

It was a good talk, I think. I hope she thinks so.

The whole country -- the WHOLE country -- needs to know what a neocon is.

I feel a piece of my heart aching, though, that she was learning it.

Her husband signed up because of 9-11. To help defend his country.

[rosesaylavee]

1. Thank you for talking to her

in such a kind way. How very sad.

[lostnfound]

7. She's a good person, it's easy to be kind

Decent, sweet, seems very gentle. Quite a bit younger than me.

I often have a hard time talking to people about the war without getting agitated. But she's so different. Not entrenched in her thinking.

She said her husband has almost gotten killed a couple of times. I just can't imagine what it's like.

[catmother]

2. yes. you were very nice to her. some people just don't

understand. there brainwashed -- especially the military families. i spoke to one last year when i donated money for misty mates for the troops. i told her i was against the war but i supported the troops.

[SoCalDem]

3. Well, at ONE time they WERE "new".. They started their march

towards fascism decades ago, and the moniker stuck. By now there's nothing at all "new" about them.. They have been pushing the same old stuff for ages, while chiseling away at the constitution and all our laws..:(

[Ilsa]

4. What a dear you are for spending that time talking with her,

and also for helping to send some needed items to the troops.

There are so many resources on all of this now. These are some of my favorites:

Videos from PBS' Frontline. They don't draw conclusions; they just present facts and leave it to the viewer to think it through.

The War Behind Closed Doors -- This has the chronology of the Bush Doctrine going back to the neocons and PGW-I.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/ This is a 2003 report.

The Long Road To War
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/longroad/

Rumsfeld's War
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pentagon/

The Dark Side -- on Dick Cheney and his quest for power.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/

Most of these PBS sites have cross-references, transcripts, or video to view.

[IndyOp]

5. This Al Gore's approach in "An Inconvenient Truth"

He says that the only way he knows to change the world is to talk with people - one person, one group, one family at a time until slowly, but surely, you reach a tipping point.

Thank you! You did good work tonight!

:applause:

[Jara sang]

6. Watching CNN yesterday. Khalilzad is on with Wolf Shitzer.

I say something like "The neo-cons are creaming their pants right now." watching the developments in the ME. Co-worker asks "Neo-con?" I say, "Yeah, neo-con, you know Project for a new American century? Khalilzad is a member." She says, no lie, "I don't adhere to that conspiracy theory stuff" In figured as much. Nobody will know about this criminal regime until historians examine it a hundred years from now.