Where Have I Seen Sarah Palin Before? by Arash Kamangeer:
One of the problems the government faced was opposition from legions of mothers whose sons had been maimed or died in the war. To confront this problem, the government-controlled TV would parade a mother whose son had died in the war in front of the TV on a regular basis. Invariably, this "show mom" would be carrying an infant child and a few other siblings with her. And invariably, she would say something to the effect that "I have given one child to this 'sacred' war, and I am ready to give the next one." Almost always, there would be an adoring crowd who would follow her statements by chants of "Allaho-Akbar" (God is Great). And again invariably, her statements would follow by a not-so-veiled threat from her and the adoring crowd. She would say something like "I and my family would not tolerate traitors and betrayals to the faith and country". Then the crowd would break into several standard chants such as "Death to traitors" or "War, war, until victory."Sarah Palin was much better dressed than the average show mom paraded on Iranian TV more than 20 years ago. The show moms were typically dressed in a black veil. But that's about the biggest difference. The rhetoric was eerily familiar. When she was finished, I knew I had seen her before. Only that it wasn't her. It was her ideological predecessors at a different time in a different country.
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Arash is absolutely right (read the whole article). I gave birth to 2 sons during war years in my country, Yugoslavia. The same media brain washing, but also people like my doctor, telling "See why it is so important to have multiple sons, so when it is a war like this, you can sacrifice one or two and still have some left!" I have to say that families have in average one or two kids, more than that is rarity in Serbian population. I truly wanted to punch his face! The other moment I recall that hurt me just like it would happen that very day, when a woman in the public bus, older one, as I was holding my 1.5 months firstborn, said: "Is it a boy or a girl? A boy! Oh, future soldier!!!" I was arguing saying that if it was up to me, he WILL NOT be a soldier! How on Earth a WOMAN can be pro-war???? In Time magazine photos of Palin with a shot game was more than awkward. Aren't we supposed to protect life??? I don't see anyone attacked this country and that there is no other solution than war... If Palin comes to the power, I can only see the first sentence from Arash's whole article to be the truth here, just another religion, but still the same theocracy.
Posted by: Tanja Sova | September 7, 2008 8:14 AM