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Tuesday, March 25, 2003
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Images Of War
First Image: Fox News, CNN and other networks are showing war developments, often with a Dow counter graphic in one corner of the screen. It's a real-time graphic, giving the impression that as war devlopments occur (Apaches down!), you can see what the economy and your own 401K is doing. I barely even noticed it until someone mentioned it to me. Hard to believe this is what we are.
Next Image: Standing in a convenience store last night, I'm confronted with a rack of newsweeklies (Time, USNWR, etc.) that have the first footage of the "Shock and Awe", along with confident speculation on "What Comes Next?", meaning this war is more formality than anything. Then, next to that is the newspaper stand with the Monday headlines in large font talking about Sunday-"A Very Tough Day". Just like that, the mood has changed. Maybe we ought to worry about today's firefight before we worry about how to restructure that government.
Last Image: U.S. soldiers with machine guns, in a trench. They are under heavy fire, and they are returning fire. This isn't Gulf War I. This isn't the "clean strike", with oohs and aahs in a press briefing room while a laser bombing sight is locked in on a bridge. This is real. I've never seen anything like this. This must be a little bit of what Stalingrad looked like. And we aren't even to Baghdad yet. It's going to get bad.
The Next Image?: Saddam is breaking the rules. He won't engage us in a fair fight, and why should he? Right or wrong, a nation under attack and facing long odds is going to resort to desperate measures, and damn the Geneva Convention. If they use gas, how can we win? Even if our troops are protected, the civilians won't be. The deaths will be many, and horrible. Deaths that so much of the world will attribute to our invasion. And all along, that's what we have been told was the hard part-The Aftermath. Our odds are looking longer each day; Saddam cannot win this war, but he might be able to keep the U.S. from winning, too.
And if they don't use gas? If the Weapons of Mass Destruction aren't found, how much moral authority will the U.S. have after this invasion?
I'll say it again: I feel deeply for the civilians and Coalition soldiers in Iraq right now. Gulf War I never seemed all that scary to me, from the U.S. perspective. This is shaping up to be altogether different.
And we aren't even to Baghdad yet.
2:50:18 PM 
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The Bad Old Days
We Mock What We Don't Understand
Mattel has re-issued their Classic Football series of games recently. I didn't have these games as a child, and only sporadically picked them up while at friend's houses. To call these games "football" is a stretch. They are LED blips on a screen, and little more.
Jane bought me the re-issue of Classic Football 2 for Christmas. My indignation was palpable when I opened the package. Of course, this made me feel bad; it was, after all, a gift. But I perceived that this was her way of playing a little joke on me. I was always making side comments about the PlayStation 2, how cool it was, how badly I wanted one. My wife has a staunch bias against video games. I won't speculate as to why; it could be a gender thing, it could be that she's no good at them, it could be that something traumatic happened to her once at an arcade while playing the light-cycle stage of Tron. I don't know the answer. All I knew was, I wasn't going to be getting a PS2 for Christmas like all the other cool dads.
So then I get the Mattel Classic Football 2. When you've been pining for fully-rendered players with names on their jersies, those little LED blips just don't measure up. Turning the knife in a little further, Jane assured me that this was the one where you could go forwards AND backwards, and you could even pass. Again, when you've been salivating over the thought of a playbook with literally hundreds of plays and formations, the reassurance that you can go in multiple directions is less than comforting.
I set it down, unopened. Days passed. Out of boredom, I finally opened it up. I didn't really know how to play it. I learned. It is the most stupid, simplistic "game" I have ever played. And now I'm hooked on it. It is the perfect toilet companion. Why trouble myself with reading Harper's or Boy's Life when I can now re-enact The Drive, and John Elway's famously heroic episode against the cursed Cleveland Browns? I have since apologized to Jane. She is wiser than I thought, though her standoffish attitude toward the PS2 still troubles me.
Linus likes to play the CF2 as well. Of course, he just pushes the buttons to make the sound. He has no conception of the goal of the game. To my astonishment, one day I heard the scoring fanfare sound come from the game. I checked, and of course it should have been obvious: He was racking up safeties, because he just takes the ball from the line of scrimmage and runs backwards. Whatever, he liked pushing the buttons and hearing the sounds.
And then one night, I heard the fanfare, and for some reason I checked his game. One the teams had scored 5 points. Somehow, some way, he had kicked a field goal. In no way am I implying that this was an intentional act on his part. But it's pretty amazing that he got into field goal range, and then did the proper sequence to do the kick, and make it. I've had whole games where I couldn't score 5 points.
When he's finally old enough to see Madden on a PS2, it will blow his mind. I can't wait.
11:55:01 AM
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Finger Update
I have sought medical expertise for my dislocated pinky. The news is good, in that my finger is not broken. I now wear a splint, which means that 25% of the typing keyboard is an exercise in tedium and futility for me.
You really underestimate how big a deal your pinky is until it pulls up lame. Maybe it would be better if the pinky were gone altogether, rather than just sitting there useless with a bulky splint on it. I haven't been able to pick my banjo or wear my pinky rings. I had to miss my oragami class, and there's no way I'm going to be able to participate in the annual Over The Top arm wrestling competition that I host every year at the end of March.
Seriously, what if I depended on my hands to communicate, as through American Sign Language? I would think I would lose some command of the language with this faulty digit. It's almost like a speech impediment.
All things considered, once I got over the initial shock of seeing my finger, it hasn't been too bad. If this is the worst injury I ever suffer, I'll be so damned lucky.
11:37:00 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Doug Hennessee.
Last update: 4/1/2003; 3:15:40 PM.
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