"The Real World" confronts the war in Iraq.

I saw that the new episode of "The Real World" is mostly about the roommates arguing about the war in Iraq, so seeing I had the show TiVo'd, I watched it, thinking -- what? -- that there might be some interesting debate about the war? Some insight into what young people today think about it? Something... bloggable?

So one roommate -- Rachel -- served in Iraq. We see her telling her some of her war stories... well, actually, just saying that in Iraq, she had to dig a hole to "poop" in. Then there's a cut to cast member Nehemiah saying:

I've just had it up to here with her bragging and boasting, because I'm against war, and for me to just sit back and hear her brag about it all the time and ... I'm going to react to it because I have an opinion, just like she does.

But the two just get into a fight about whether it's harder to be in prison or harder to serve in Iraq. This is a silly comparison. It may be safer and easier to be in prison, but it's involuntary and degrading. War and prison are just different, in obvious ways. In any event, it has nothing to do with whether the war is right or wrong.

Later, Rachel clashes with roommates after she takes it upon herself to pressure them to get up and get moving early -- as it's done in the Army. They try to tell her nicely not to be so bossy, but she's all about how things are in the Army. Chez Althouse, Chris says: "She needs to stop talking about how things are done in the Army." It's just not that relevant to how people need to act outside of the Army. I start to suspect that the producers, off camera, keep telling her to really play up the Army angle. She was cast to play a character, not just to hang out in a cool house.

Now we see them at the kitchen table and Nehemiah's calling Bush "a robot" and asking, "What's the whole war about?" But instead of seeing them debate about the war, we see knuckleheaded Nehemiah telling Rachel she wasn't even in the war, because she was a nurse. She blows up and goes on about the injured men she tended to and the dangers she faced. Later, another roommate helps Nehemiah understand that he was wrong to express his opposition to the war like that, and then we see Nehemiah and Rachel in a snuggy-kissy scene where they each apologize to the other.

And that the treatment of the war in Iraq on "The Real World -- Austin," and the episode is padded out with the usual crap where they go to bars, get drunk, display affection, and have minor misunderstandings that are soon patched up with a little whining and hugging.

Pretty much exactly what you would have expected.