Yeppers. Watched it happen August 1990. Military even copped to it - they didn't want us "spitting on the troops" "like we did after Vietnam." When it was pointed out that there were no documented instances of troops ever being spat upon, there was silence. When it was pointed out that it was generally protestors who were shot over Vietnam, there was more silence.

But first they called up the Reserves. All of them. Podunk units that did fuckall were activated so that everyone everywhere knew "someone" in Desert Shield, even if they weren't doing more than sweeping the office at the reserve center.

Then they "embedded" the troops. Which every news organization clutched their pearls over but did it anyway. There would be no reporting from the front lines that wasn't being done from Bradley IFVs.

Then they did the prime time push. Nothing but grainy black'n'white footage of Maverick missiles hitting buildings. By the time troops actually rolled we might as well have been the Red Army.

Buddy of mine actually tried to organize a protest march. Got all of five people. All five got death threats, and rednecks throwing things from cars. And that was before we had a resolution from the Security Council.

Pentagon had noticed that all the Heartbreak Ridges in the world weren't properly indoctrinating the empire. People were getting the message "war is a bummer" from songs like "Born in the USA" and "Walkin' on a Thin Line" and movies like Platoon and Hamburger Hill so the minute Iraq was on the agenda, shit went full Riefenstahl. And it's been there ever since.