Category: War (Page 13 of 18)

Shortly after this year’s Academy Awards, Roger Simon reflected on the state of Hollywood’s wartime attitudes, and asked whether “a new ‘Casablanca’” might be possible.

Now Madonna’s talking about shooting her own remake of Casablanca … only somehow I don’t think it’s quite the movie that Roger had in mind…

On Reuters a couple of days ago: “Clinton attacks Obama and McCain on Iraq”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton put the war in Iraq in the forefront of her campaign on Monday, attacking Democratic rival Barack Obama and Republican John McCain over an issue that has divided the country.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, laid out her policy proposals to deal with the conflict, including ensuring that troops have sufficient rest time between deployments, pressing the United Nations to be more involved, and getting key allies to help stabilize the region.

“Bringing our troops home safely will take a president who is ready to be commander in chief on Day One,” she said in a speech.

“Withdrawal is not defeat. Defeat is keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years.”

Oh! Well, if it’s going to take that long to defeat our fanatical Jihadist enemies, then forget it I guess. It’s hardly worth the trouble.

Seems worthy of concern to me that she who aspires to be our military’s commander-in-chief shows no qualms about demonstrating the United States to be the very “paper tiger” or “weak horse” that Osama Bin Laden counted on us to be. Is she just shrewdly pandering to the anti-war component of her voter base, or does she really and truly not see any serious long-term consequences to allowing the United States to be perceived as weak-willed and lacking in resolve? Furthermore, I don’t see how in March 2008 one can make such a gloomy prediction about Iraq’s future and expect to be taken as fully serious, given the significant progress that our shift in strategy has brought. Seems like there’s an ever-growing disconnect between the politically convenient “the Iraq war is a failure” narrative and improving realities on the ground.

Over at PJM:

But, again sad to say, this is a probably an academic exercise. I doubt Hollywood is ready to make a movie like this, even if it would be a hit. They just don’t seem to want to cheer for our team, no matter how much the audience wants it.

Update 4/1: Permalink fixed. Apparently PJM’s recent site redesign entailed moving things around.

Michael Totten has posted another characteristically excellent, in-depth report from Iraq — this time from Fallujah, as the Marines there train the local Iraqi Police and prepare to leave patrolling of this once volatile, now startlingly calm city in their hands.

As always, Michael provides insightful, informative reporting that’s hard to come by elsewhere — thoroughly engaging and well worth reading in its entirety.

If you like Michael’s work, consider dropping something in the tipjar that makes his travels possible. (I just did so myself.)

Update 2/12: Part III is up now. A few among many especially relevant excerpts, addressing the unfortunate disconnect between popular perception and what Totten has witnessed on the ground:

According to planet-wide conventional wisdom, United States soldiers and Marines are on an abusive rampage in Iraq. Relentless media coverage of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib – which really did occur, but which the United States didn’t sanction or tolerate – seriously distorted what actually goes on in Iraq most of the time. The United States military is far from perfect and is hardly guilt-free, but it’s the most law-abiding and humane institution in Iraq at this time.

…

Such people do not wish to recklessly fire their weapons and harm civilians. Their rules of engagement are sharply restrictive, much more so than most American civilians have any idea. The rules are certainly more restrictive than Iraqi civilians expected when the Americans showed up in force in 2003.

…

I’ve said before that American soldiers and Marines aren’t the bloodthirsty killers of the popular (in certain quarters) imagination, and that they are far less racist against Arabs than average Americans. They are also, famously, less racist against each other, and they have been since they were forcibly integrated after World War II. This is due to sustained everyday contact with each other and with Iraqis. The stereotype of the racist and unhinged American soldier and Marine is itself a bigoted caricature based almost entirely on sensationalist journalism and recklessly irresponsible war movies.

…

You know who else is in Iraq and therefore knows what the country is really like? Iraqis. (Of course.) They see and experience much of the same kinds of events George Packer and I have seen and experienced. They don’t learn about Iraq from Reuters and Hollywood. And they are less anti-American than they were during the initial invasion in 2003 – at least many of those who have had sustained contact with Marines and soldiers. Sustained contact with the “other” breaks down bigotry all around, even in war zones.

The violent strain of anti-Americanism in Fallujah and the surrounding area has ebbed almost completely. People here know Americans are not the enemy. They know Americans protect them from murder and intimidation from the head-choppers and car bombers. They know Americans provide medical care to Iraqis hurt by insurgents and even to insurgents wounded in battle.

This has got to be seen to be truly appreciated!

On crackle.com, the same site that’s carrying Penn Jillette’s new video podcast, I just now stumbled across Sands of Passion — an Al-Qaeda Soap Opera, of course:

“Like infidels through an hourglass, so are the Sands of Passion.”

It’s been said that we can’t reasonably expect to win a war if we can’t even bring ourselves to make fun of our fanatical Jihadist enemies. So glad to see somebody’s doing it — and doing it hilariously! Catch all nine current episodes on the website.

All too many SNL sketches fall far short of being this funny…

Macworld 2008 is here this week, and, true to form, Steve Jobs’ Tuesday keynote presentation included some pretty neat product announcements. Randy Newman’s accompanying song-form political rant, however, should in a sane world be an embarrassment to Apple. Seems like this should be getting a lot more critical attention.

I found Newman’s performance pretty offensive, but watch the whole thing and judge for yourself. Apparently the song — titled “A Few Words In Defense of Our Country” with no small measure of irony — is an existing element of Randy Newman’s repertoire, which makes it seem implausible that SJ didn’t know what was coming. The song is on the iTunes Store, and several videos of Newman’s performance are now up on YouTube, including this one with helpful subtitles added. (You can also find Newman’s performance in the streaming Macworld Keynote video, if you fast-forward to 1 hr. 18 mins.)

On reflection, I’m not entirely sure what to make of his muddled message. The favorable comparison of our present leadership to historic figures such as Hitler and Stalin, if meant as a compliment, has surely got to be about the most backhanded compliment I’ve ever heard. With defenders like Newman, who needs enemies?

Oh, and apparently it’s PC now to publicly use terms like “tight-assed Italians” (as long as you’re referring to conservative justices on the Supreme Court)? Geez.

For good measure, he even capped it off with a little “I usually root against corporations” talk, and rehashed for us once again the familiar tired accusations of “Empire!”. (I’m willing to bet he hasn’t had the good fortune of reading Bill Whittle’s brilliant 2002 piece on the topic.)

“The end of an empire is messy at best,
and this empire is ended like all the rest
Like the Spanish Armada adrift on the sea
We’re adrift in the land of the brave and the home of the free
Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.”

Yes, goodbye Randy. And next time, if you really want to help us out, please, just stop helping.

Update 1/17: Well put at Angry Zen Master:

There are apparently two Randy Newmans. The Randy Newman we all know writes little ditties for PIXAR flicks and television shows and from the lyrical content of those themes, you might suspect that he’s a big sweetie. Then there’s the Randy Newman who showed up at Macworld 2008’s keynote address. That Randy Newman is quite insane.

I guess that’s one Randy Newman for each of John Kerry’s two Americas?