Get your Enduring Freedom Trading cards!
November 6, 2001 2:54 PM   Subscribe

Get your Enduring Freedom Trading cards! Topps releases a new series "documenting America's greatest challenge". But don't worry, they didn't include any "disturbing images from national newscasts". Will Wizards of the Coast be next?
posted by kaefer (32 comments total)
 
Don't forget to get the checklist so you check you're the first to get them all! Harry Potter Trading cards have also arrived, whoopeededodadey...
posted by Mossy at 3:04 PM on November 6, 2001


While living in Slovakia in 1991, just after the massacre of Bush pere, my brother sent me a stack of "Desert Storm" trading cards. I thought they were some kind of joke at first, then realized that, oh yeah, this is America.

Now more cards. What a sad commentary on this country. Kids collecting cards of deadly war machinery, getting all hot and bothered over those implements of death. I wonder if, in the interests of full disclosure, Topps lists the estimated death toll for each weapon/delivery device? Likely not.

What a pathetic country I live in. Sad is what I feel today. Sad for what I can only describe as a self-deluded spiral down into the abyss of self-righteousness.
posted by mapalm at 3:08 PM on November 6, 2001


44. U.S. Secretary Of Transportation Norman Mineta

Dude! Is that his rookie card? Whoooooaaa. I'll trade you two Condis for that!

This whole idea fills me with an odd mixture of fury and boredom.
posted by Skot at 3:12 PM on November 6, 2001


great. action shots of bush on the phone. can you tell how exhilirated i am?

"i told you to rock, not to suck." - zorak
posted by lotsofno at 3:19 PM on November 6, 2001


What a pathetic country I live in. Sad is what I feel today. Sad for what I can only describe as a self-deluded spiral down into the abyss of self-righteousness.
But we like you anyway, mapalm! Your self delusion is what gives us something in common! I personally am deluded that our government might actually end this thing and then help to put a proper Muslim theocratic government into power, instead of insisting on a pretend democracy that will only end in dictatorship.
posted by dwivian at 3:20 PM on November 6, 2001


Yeah, I'm deluded into thinking that the U.S. might actually kill bin Laden and other top Taliban operatives and show everyone, including potential allies, that we're effing crazy enough to kill people who target us in unprovoked attacks and kill innocent people. Isn't that a silly notion?
posted by msacheson at 3:25 PM on November 6, 2001


What a pathetic country I live in.

Of course, I should add that no pathetic countries would have the guts and respect for its people to allow free speech like yours, mapalm, and I hope you at least appreciate that right afforded you by the U.S.
posted by msacheson at 3:28 PM on November 6, 2001


What a pathetic country I live in.

Just a helpful suggestion, but if you really feel that strongly about it, you could move elsewhere, right?

As for the trading cards, I'd be terribly interested in finding out whether they will really be purchased by kids, or by adults. I was surprised enough by this link to show several co-workers the Topps page, and was again surprised to find out how many of them have the Gulf War cards.
posted by Wulfgar! at 3:37 PM on November 6, 2001


What a pathetic country I live in.

Kids are going to be listening to adults talking about this war for a long time to come, and many will have parents involved in the war effort. If one way for them to converse about the world changing around them is to trade cards depicting complex current events, more power to them.

At first I cringed reflexively at the idea of war trading cards, but the cards are just an unexpected medium. Get over it. The comic book "Maus" depicting the struggle of WWII Jews wasn't created to capitalize on the Holocaust, but to give it another voice.

Kids collecting cards of deadly war machinery, getting all hot and bothered over those implements of death.

Your grim imaginings of what goes through kids' minds reveals more about your own.
posted by Tubes at 3:59 PM on November 6, 2001


what mapalm needs are some $15 flags from the seedy fellow parked at the gas station.

pathetic? pfft. god bless this mess!
posted by mcsweetie at 4:19 PM on November 6, 2001


Just a helpful suggestion, but if you really feel that strongly about it, you could move elsewhere, right?

actually it's pretty hard to move to other countries on a long-term basis. I guess it can be done but it's not that easy.
posted by cell divide at 4:30 PM on November 6, 2001


I'm sorry, but when I looked at these all that I could think about was the old Topps Mars Attacks! trading card set and Tim Burton's intermittently funny film based upon the same.

Oh, what I wouldn't give to see cards featuring Dubya, Condi, and Colin Powell's heads morphed onto the bodies of giant-brained, skullfaced Martian invaders blasting hapless Taliban fighters with handheld particle beam weapons. I'd also like to see Christine Amanpour's head grafted onto the body of a chihuahua.

Ack!...AckAck!...ACKACKACK!!!
posted by MrBaliHai at 4:35 PM on November 6, 2001


(opens bag of holding) "hey buddy...."
posted by clavdivs at 4:45 PM on November 6, 2001


no pathetic countries would have the guts and respect for its people to allow free speech like yours, mapalm... Yeah, that'll teach 'im to criticize war and baseball.

Is it really necessary to argue for a war by calling the other side evil unpatriotic communists. And furthermore, do people really think what is essentially making money on celebrating death and violence is a good thing, just because it's pro-America? C'mon, you can support a war, and hope that your children don't learn the wrong lessons from it.

I think mapalm was merely pointing out that these cards teach kids that war is cool. Not necessary, defensive, just, righteous, or good ... just cool. Are war-supporters going to rally behind this just because it has a flag on the label and it says USA somewhere? Gimme a break, msacheon, Postroad, dhartung, Tubes, etc. is that something you want folded into your opinion or what?
posted by rschram at 6:21 PM on November 6, 2001


card #47: Bob Hope in Islamabad.
posted by clavdivs at 6:41 PM on November 6, 2001


is that something you want folded into your opinion or what?

Only if you ASSUME that it is, which, by the way, you just did. How do you know what these cards teach kids? Furthermore, you are, as are others, once again assuming that not being anti-war is the same as being pro-war. What about pro-reality? Pro-justice? Pro-not wanting this terrorist shit to ever happen again? Going back through this thread shows not one single person claiming to be "pro-war". It would seem from this that it is those taking the anti-war-moral-high-ground that are doing the attacking here. For all those willing to say "we must think of the children", it would appear that Tubes actually has. And most of those that your assumptive vitriol has been directed at haven't said thing-one in this thread.

So I ask you, rschram, what about this card set of Topps deserves such harsh judgements against those who don't revile them? Are they celebrating death and violence? How? Can't they be a tool of history and national strength? Is that evil? Are they more sinister then little green army men? Is there something terribly wrong with me because I don't find either of them sinister? Please, if you wish to attack Topps or the concepts behind their product, do so. But labeling those who don't feel as you do isn't very helpful.
posted by Wulfgar! at 7:56 PM on November 6, 2001


This isn't the first time Topps has done this ya know. They did it for Korea, Civil War and the Gulf War. It's a nice way to preserve the past... through laminated cards.
posted by geoff. at 8:26 PM on November 6, 2001


Are they more sinister then little green army men?

When I was growing up I was forbade from owning green army men. Many parents do think about what toys teach kids. They may be wrong, but there's no basis to dismiss arguments about the meaning of toys because they're "just for fun."

If you left your agreement with the message of the cards implicit, then you still present an idea that pro-Enduring Freedom is just pro-war. In fact, an argument for war I see alot on this site these days is that war, this war, anything Bush wants to do, anything flag-related, is good because any dissent is just plain bad and wrong. It's argument by appeal to "common sense."

That kind of thinking isn't just something I disagree with politically, it's stupid, unreflective, and uncritical. I expect a lot better from MeFi. Supporters of Enduring Freedom have proven themselves to be an inarticulate lot. That doesn't mean your wrong, it means you aren't thinking. So my challenge to you is to think a little.
posted by rschram at 8:40 PM on November 6, 2001


In fact, an argument for war I see alot on this site these days is that war, this war, anything Bush wants to do, anything flag-related, is good because any dissent is just plain bad and wrong.

I don't think anyone that supports the current military action is supporting it because "dissent is bad and wrong." As one of those "supporters" you disdain, I can tell you right now that my opinion is not contingent upon what *anyone* else thinks. There seems to be some sort of theory among those who are opposed to the war that the rest of us have all just been brainwashed. You're the one that's not thinking, rschram. You're also not actually reading the posts, or you would have seen the arguments supporters have made, none of which included "I'm doing it because everyone else is." "Stupid, reflexive, and uncritical" apparently means "did not agree with me" in your world, because it certainly doesn't describe most of the comments I've seen.

Also - great comments, wulfgar!. The "pro-war" label disgusts me. It's the same tactic anti-abortion activists take by referring to themselves as "pro-life" (as if the other side is conversely anti-life.) No one in their right mind is generally "Pro-war." Pro-this-war is an entirely different animal.
posted by lizs at 9:12 PM on November 6, 2001


Cannot resist:

One is either Pro-This-War or Anti-This-War. At least have the guts to stand by your convictions, lizs. You can't have it both ways.
posted by mapalm at 9:16 PM on November 6, 2001


mapalm: how wonderful for you that the most terrible thing that has happened to you since September 11 is that somebody has begun selling trading cards you don't like. You are truly one of the privileged people that you can be so detached. If only we all could live in your rose-colored world!
posted by dhartung at 9:23 PM on November 6, 2001


mapalm: how wonderful for you...

Please, guy. You don't know the first thing about me. Give it a rest, and get back on topic.
posted by mapalm at 9:34 PM on November 6, 2001


I think it's ironic that people seem to be disturbed by the sight of trading cards about war that some American children will collect, as if that were some kind of brainwashing we are giving our children. However, I don't think that's within several orders of magnitude the brainwashing that is going on in some extreme fundamentalist schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. If we reach a day when none of our young boys (or girls) are interested in maplam's "instruments of death" (airplanes, tanks, etc.) then surely this country will cease to be the great and free country that it is.
posted by ArkIlloid at 10:05 PM on November 6, 2001


mapalm - I am pro-this-war, and i never said anything to the contrary. I am not, however, "pro-war" generally, and i find it ludicrous that some people seem to believe that all supporters of this particular war are supporters because they're just generally (and always) hawkish.
posted by lizs at 10:19 PM on November 6, 2001


did anybody actually read the text?

Kids need to understand that the President (and his team) will keep them safe and that evil-doers will be punished. Our cards deliver the details in a medium with which they are familiar and comfortable.

i mean, really ... i would take that for sarcasm if i didn't know they mean it. it just makes me sad.
posted by ubique at 2:24 AM on November 7, 2001


"self-deluded spiral down into the abyss of self-righteousnes"

Mapalm, maybe if you turn the hyperbole down a bit people will take you more seriously. I'm not for the war, or for these cards even, but they certainly aren't the end of the world. Or even an indication of our country being fucked up. I'm sure if you look you could find Heros of the NeoNazi Movement trading cards, too. Doesn't mean anything.

Yeah, maybe kids shouldn't be taught that war is a game. Then again, when I was little, I had Dinosaur Attack cards, and I'm ok. Sort of.
posted by Doug at 2:59 AM on November 7, 2001


I am certainly in favor of punishing those responsible and preventing further attacks, but find baseball cards needless, crass, and border-line facist. Then again, it's a free country (thank god), and I don't have to buy them. I just see little need for outward signs of insensible patriotic frenzy in the form of collecting baseball cards. I remember the ones from the Gulf War and I thought they were disgusting then as well. To treat this operation as a "sport" is something that distubs me deeply. Does anyone remember during the Gulf War those T-shirts that were sold in department stores that had a picture of Iraq, a bulls-eye target, and the phrase "I'd fly 10,000 miles to smoke a camel"? I mean, come on. Do we really need to have stuff like this to prove that we are in favor of tracking down these bastards and destroying them? It just seems to trivialize the whole thing.

Hey, this is a capitalist state, and if people will buy them, I guess there will always be someone who will sell them. For better or for worse, and whether I agree with it or not, I defend their right to do it.
posted by adampsyche at 5:46 AM on November 7, 2001


Here are some Desert Storm cards. I like the "Anti-Chemical Gear" card and the "Burning Oil Field" card.
posted by panopticon at 10:42 AM on November 7, 2001


Here's the link that panopticon meant to put up.

The Saddam card features an interesting "Who farted?" expression on his face.
posted by Skot at 10:48 AM on November 7, 2001


Or maybe not. Looks like preview is lying to me.
posted by Skot at 10:52 AM on November 7, 2001


Topps really dropped the ball by not making a card featuring a cluster bomb. That's my favorite weapon.

Kaefer, this link rocks. What juicy material for parody!
posted by dack at 11:04 AM on November 7, 2001


I don't like the idea of these cards really, mostly because they seem to be someone's idea of "hey let's make money outta this but disguise it as being educational!" And I don't like the idea that our "team" is fighting their "team" and, oops people might just happen to die. Critiquing a form of media has nothing to do with whether you are a hawk or dove - this is the kinda thing that should be questioned, that we should pick appart and figure out the message, the purpose.

I'm not morally indignant about this - I just think it's pretty damn strange.

But then so are Torah Personalities cards I guess. But what the hell do I know?
posted by batgrlHG at 5:48 PM on November 8, 2001


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