Militarization of daily life

In looking back on my initial list of how my daily life is militarized, I realize that I did not have much to say about the topic. The only things I could think of was how regimented my daily life is, and how this reminded me of being in the army and how regimented their lives are. At the beginning of the semester, I was not aware of how my life is militarized. Even though I am not in the army nor do I support the current war, I am still militarized. I am currently doing a project for another class on women in advertising and the advertising industry. The thing that surprised me most in my research for this was how unaware we are about how advertising effects us. We see advertising everywhere, from large billboard ads to signs in windows to websites we commonly surf (cough facebook). In this same way, we are exposed to advertisements for the military on a daily basis but do not even know it. If we go to the movies, we see a video to join the army before the movie trailers, and then even one of the movie trailers could be for a war film. It is not necessarily that the Army is everywhere, and this is not even necessary, so long as they have their advertisements everywhere. The thing that I find almost scary about advertising and especially advertising for the military is that it is an unconscious awareness and processing of the images we see. Even if I notice that I am looking at an advertisement for the army, because of the short amount of time spent looking at it, this is stored in the back of my mind where I am no longer conscious of it. In this same way, it seems a lot of people are unaware of how the army's advertisement has effected them. I know many people who consider themselves politically liberal and anti-war but enjoy playing Call of Duty or watching a war film. After this class and after researching more on the advertising industry and how advertisements work, I feel like I can be aware when I see something that is targeted for recruitment and make sure to ignore it, but that is only until the army thinks of a new way to advertise. Right now they have clothes, stores, video games, the Internet, television shows, paper ads, movies and in some cases, educational institutions to advertise through. What's next?

Response to Sanger Article

To me, comparing the US's presence in Iraq to Korea is just another one of the Bush administration's excuses to stay in Iraq indefinitely. In his article, Sanger references Donald L. Kerrick, a retired general who states: "If we can make this [Iraq] like Korea, then we have been successful". He also says that this analogy does not fit Iraq, so although the Korea model may seem like a positive model for the US an the US's military actions, it does not apply to the current situation in Iraq. By comparing the invasion of Iraq to a 'success story' like Korea, of course the current invasion will sound positive. However, Sanger also tells us that "Historical analogy has been a problem for this administration since the start of the Iraq war in 2003...even then, historians and analysts were warning against such comparasions, arguing that those were two cohesive societies that were exhausted by years of war and bore little resemblance to the fractured Iraqi society and its potential for internal violence". By comparing the Iraq war to historical sucesses of the US, the administration puts a positive spin on the current situation and also gives a false representation of the reasons and goals of invading Iraq. According to Sanger, President Bush refuses to quit, stating, "We'll succeed unless we quit". Again, this claim seems like an easy way for the administration to insist that we stay in Iraq, lest we fail at our goal. The impression that I get from the Sanger article is that the Bush administration will say just about anything and make historical and political connections where there are none to justify staying in Iraq.