Engaging with the enemy in Iraq - AND with now new front with mattress supplier back home?

This is a sad story around misplaced anti-war sentiment and the power of digital community.

We all know the Americans are quite emotionally charged now about the Iraq war, and we (Alan as an Englishman, me as a Finn based in Hong Kong) observe the debate from quite a distance via CNN and the BBC etc. There was a story getting good coverage in the States about this one soldier stationed in Iraq and his surprising second front that opened in the war, back home. We heard of this via one of our readers, Christopher Williford, who thought it might be of interest to us.

And it sure is. Here is what happened. There is a US army sergeant named Jason Hess with the First Cavalry Division (and no, they dont' use horses anymore, its just a very old military unit which kept its old name, they do ride tanks...) who is stationed in Taji, Iraq. Sergeant Hess was concerned about the men in his platoon who have to sleep on the cold ground with sand mines and all kinds of poisons and dangers and animals etc. So he tried to order some mattresses from America, from a discount mattress mail order store, which has a website and e-mail address.

The company, Discount-Mats.com - replied that they do not ship to Iraq, but further that "If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq."

And at this point my heart fell. These "grunts" - the "GI's" - the plain soldiers - the guys who have to do all the dying and getting maimed in Iraq, who did not "decide to go there" (those were President Bush and his selected advisors and generals, easily 7, 8, 9 layers of command above Sergeant Hess) - but who WAS there out of his duty and honour. Many of these were part-time soldiers, the reserves who now are on ever more extended duty, dying, in a hopeless clash in the middle of a civil war.

But Sergeant Hess was doing what his country ordered him to do. He was in Iraq. And he cared. Not for himself (not ordering ONE mattress) but like any good sergeant, he wants to keep his platoon alive. He cares for his men, hoping to bring them back to America some day. So he wanted to buy a set of mattresses for his platoon.

Not only will this mattress company refuse to ship him the mattresses, but then to suggest this poor soldier can do anything about it! And for all possible virtual meaning, the American online mattress company spit in the face of others who were ordered into Iraq into harm's way. And now, just to be sure I'm not delusional and inventing this story, it is reported in many places such as this Fox New Story entitled Web site kicks sand in faces of GI's in Iraq...

I do understand that the arguments around the reasons for going into Iraq, and the ongoing war effort there, and its relationship (and/or cause-and-effect) to terrorism, and what the USA should do next, is a hot debate right now.

But those American soldiers (and obviously the soldiers from other countries serving there as well, as well as various other doctors, nurses, engineers etc) are not the ones who get to decide "to pull your troops out". If that sergeant wants to buy mattresses for his men, that cannot be an act of hostility or violence, by any counts. Here the mattress company was dead wrong.

Well, Fox does report that the website was shut down, and the person who sent the nasty message has been fired.

But this is also one of those dangers in the Connected Age. There is enormous power that is delegated down the line, to those who blog semi-officially about their employers. About PR and marketing departments who start to use digital connectivity and toss in creativity. About a part-time person or someone at a calling centre in perhaps another country, who may send e-mails on behalf of the company, etc. We are going to see these kinds of mistakes in the communications of companies. And like in this case, one sentence can do irreparable damage.

I am sure the person who wrote that e-mail response, did feel he/she was "contributing" to the "good cause" of "ending the war". But it went horribly wrong in this case.

I will try to get some follow-up on this, I'm interested in how this story "plays". We are human, after all, and we all make mistakes, so that act in itself needs to be forgiven. But I'm old enough to remember the Vietnam War, it was on the Finnish TV news every night with the body counts and blood when I was a teenager. I also remember vividly the demonstrations. And the immense pain for a generation of Americans after the war ended and the soldiers did not get a hero's welcome returning back home.

With that, I think the Democratic Party in America with this war, is being very "cautious" in how it voices its opposition. The Democratic politicians (and now increasingly Republicans as well) when they voice their displeasure with the current direction in Iraq, go to great pains to indicate they are not against the soldiers, that the soldiers in Iraq (and Afghanistan) are doing an honourable job on behalf of their country. That clearly learning from the long wounds from Vietnam, the current generation of politicians seem to want to make sure they don't turn the soldiers into another set of victims out of this mess.

But yes, thanks Christopher for pointing us to the story. I think with me here in Asia (and Alan in Europe) would have probably missed this, being too local a story to be picked up by our media.

Its one thing to organize in peaceful revolt against those who are in control (like in this case against Bush running the war), like we show for example in our book with the Estrada Government overthrow by "smart mob" as Howard Rheingold first wrote in his book. But its another thing to turn that frustration into a misdirected hatered against the soldiers doing their jobs.

Well, you get my point. Its late again, I'm rambling.... But yes, its not all happy pills and bright clouds here in cyberspace. We also get our share of the sad stories and misdeeds empowered by digital connectivity.  Hopefully a lesson learned. We don't want these kinds of mistakes to turn into the new Kryptonites for our age..

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