Why I Don't Read/Watch Iraq News

Pundits and associated bottom-dwellers have decried Americans' lack of interest in stories about Iraq. The Mainstream Media know of the lack of interest and comply by scaling back their stories about Iraq. The pundits (usually liberal ones) claim that because the horrific violence is no longer in our eyeballs every day that means we Americans are being fooled about how bad Iraq is.

Wrong.

I can't speak for my fellow Americans (unlike other pundits/bloggers/Hillaries), but I can talk about why I can't read/watch any news about Iraq.

Because I'm bitter about the war. Yeah, the magic word, 'bitter.' Obama said that blue-collar voters are bitter about their economic fate but have realized that Washington won't do anything about it. So they rely on things they do care about. And that's how I feel about Iraq.

The war is a terrible, horrible, failure. It can't get better. The House of Representatives is on board to end the war, the Senate is deadlocked (for why, see here), and the executive branch is hell-bent-for-leather to do whatever it wants. The war will not end before January 21, 2009 (and then, only if Obama wins).

So because the war won't end, and because it's so freakin' obvious except for solipsistic partisans that the war is hopeless, there's nothing nothing nothing I can do about it.

Hatred led to bittness. Bitterness led to this 'knowing apathy.' I don't avoid the news because I don't care, I avoid the news because I care so very much, and can't do anything about it, that to avoid bursting my ulcer every day, I need to avoid the news.