[SuziQ]

What a waste. He went to Iraq, accomplished nothing, and ended up as a propaganda tool of Saddam Hussein.

He accomplished exactly what he WANTED to accomplish. He got his face in the news, didn't he? As they say, even bad publicity is better than no publicity at all!

[mountaineer]

You're correct, of course - Penn got the publicity he so desperately sought by mouthing off on Pres. Bush and Iraq. Several people observed that he hadn't had anything resembling a hit movie in ages, so he had to do something! It didn't have to be anything worthwhile, just something.