Debating Iraq? Pop a pill first

Debating Iraq? Pop a pill first
Rosa Brooks
September 14, 2007


It hurts to be an American!

Don't take my word for it: Ask the International Narcotics Control Board, which reports that Americans consume far more medical narcotics -- heavy-duty prescription painkillers -- than people in any other nation. We pop codeine tablets and hook ourselves up to morphine drips at rates people in the developing world can only dream about. Although some might conclude that this is yet another instance of Americans consuming more than our fair share of the world's resources, such a conclusion would be completely unfair. Sure, we Americans take a lot of medical narcotics, but that's only because we're in a lot of pain these days.

Face it: We may have a higher standard of living than most, but we also have dumber, more embarrassing leaders; a more vapid, pompous public debate; and a more reckless, destructive foreign policy. And it hurts -- I tell you, it hurts.

Take the Iraq debate -- please.

Start with the intense nausea that overwhelms anyone rash enough to turn on C-SPAN. This week, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus was testifying before Congress, and he read his prepared testimony out loud -- three times over two days of hearings. Not surprisingly, the situation in Iraq did not improve between the first and the third reading, but Congress pretended that this bit of political theater actually meant something. Viewers got to see a lot of jostling over who loves -- no, really loves -- the troops more and whose heart bleeds more for the tragic plight of the Iraq people, or at least for those Iraqis who aren't insurgents or terrorists. Please, pass the anti-emetics!

And if you think any of this posturing means you're going to see a change in U.S. policy, you should consider an antipsychotic drug along with your anti-emetics, because you're delusional.


Rest of article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks14sep14,0,142964.column?coll=la-util-opinion-commentary

could help explain the apparent torpor of much of the U.S. citizenry.

Apathy is nothing new, we just have access to more drugs that make it easier to achieve and maintain.

:grr: