Posted on 11/13/2007 1:06:08 PM PST by SmithL
Charleston, S.C. (AP) -- Fred Thompson has gotten a lot of mileage out of his movie and TV fame as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination. And on Tuesday, speaking at The Citadel military college, he made sure to mention one of his recent roles: president of the United States, in the movie "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."
But that wasn't all good for someone campaigning in the South.
"Some people say I've got a little making up to do," he said. "The last role I played when I was in the movies — I played Ulysses S. Grant." That's the Northern Civil War general who went on to become president. But it could have been worse.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Ah, General Tommy Franks. Can’t fault him. He went to H.S. with Laura Bush at Robert E. Lee High School in Midland Texas. (As a side note, when the lee H.S. Band marched in Bush’s inaugural Parade in D.C., they were told to leave their Confederate Battle Flags at home).
They already tried the "he's just an actor" smear against him, but then they remembered saying that about Reagan. Now, they've fallen back on Plan B, and are attacking him for his roles.
The firebombing of Japan was not destruction for its own sake. I've read the autobiography of General Curtis LeMay, who designed that campaign, and commanded the units who carried it out. He did it for the same reason we bombed the German factories, to stop war production. The Japanese had decentralized their production after our initial attempt to follow the same strategy as the 8th Air Force did in Europe. (The Brits OTOH, did the "indiscriminate" night bombing thing, because they felt that it was much lower risk to their crews and planes). After the war, touring the burned out areas of Tokyo and other Japanese cities, he saw drill presses and other machinery sticking up out of the rubble of residential neighborhoods, and knew that he had made the right call.
(OTOH he's also the source of the Bomb 'Em Back To The Stone Age" quote in regards to taking care of North Vietnam. Sort of anyway, LeMay stole it from an Art Buchwald column lampooning the Goldwater Republican's supposed attitude toward Vietnam.
I’m for Fred if he plays Usama in his next film. Grant was just doing his bloody job the best he knew how and so was Fred.
No need, I phrased that very carefully. Neither is practicing, and fell much the same way about (most) lawyers that you and I do. Besides, daughter just gave me a set of identical twin granddaughters. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?
It's more than a pastime, it's the South's history. Here in SC you can find historical signs erected at many places of significance that Sherman was responsible for burning. Specifically in Columbia and the outskirts. I'm sure it's true in Atlanta too.
Well, SmithL, that's a legitimate factor since Fred didn't accomplish much in the senate. Other than being an actor, no one would know who he was.
I have no problems with General Franks. I think he is a wonderful commander and I was sorry to see him go. Unfortunately, he was saddled with a bunch of paper-pushers (a large portion of them Clinton holdbacks) back in Washington who kept looking over his shoulder and giving him idiotic instructions. If he’d been given free-reign, I have little doubt that General Franks would have taken care of Sadr and his nutcases before they became a major problem. And the crazy decision to totally disband the old Iraqi military that drove many of its members into the insurgent camp was not his idea, but he had to deal with the consequences.
For what it’s worth, they tried the same thing on Schwarzenegger.
You seem confused.
Aerial bombardment was a lot more destructive of civilian lives than anything that Sherman did.
Targets weren't pinpointed in WWII and it was difficult to avoid or escape the fires that followed bomber attacks.
How? The Actor isn't getting my vote anyway. Nor anyone else I know of come to think of it....
Austin College is in Sherman, Texas, and was founded in 1849. If the town has been there as long as the college (and the college hasn’t moved), it was named before the War.
Moreover, we were a part of Britain's bomber campaigns against Hamburg and Dresden that cost so much in civilian lives. Our daytime attacks may have been centered on railway stations or factories, but there was no way to limit the damage.
Wikipedia says:
USAAF leaders firmly held to the claim of "precision" bombing of military targets for much of the war, and energetically refuted claims that they were simply bombing cities. In reality, the day bombing was "precision bombing" only in the sense that most bombs fell somewhere near a specific designated target such as a railway yard, whereas the night bombing campaign targeted cities with area bombardment. Nevertheless, the sheer tonnage of explosive delivered by day and by night was eventually sufficient to cause widespread damage, and, more importantly from a military point of view, forced Germany to divert resources to counter it. This was to be the real significance of the Allied strategic bombing campaign — resource allocation.
And no, Sherman most assuredly wasn't "randomly killing anyone that it was convenient to." If you're looking for a parallel it certainly wasn't Dresden or Hiroshima.
I'm sure the cadets got a hoot out of that!
actually Grant was decent with his terms to my ancestors as was Sherman.
I am amused as a Southerner though that no one gave a rat’s ass how the Federals waged a total war down here on our own soil against kinsmen and yet we wail incessantly over silly shite like Abu Graib and insulting Islamopigs.
We are so soft nowadays.
Ulysses would not be proud.
It’s one thing to praise his military leadership.
His presidency is anoth4r matter.
Amen. Both Grant and Sherman understood that it was no mercy to draw out a war of starvation. Get it done harshly, swiftly, and get it over.
What’s funny is that Hillary can put on a fake “southern/black/hick/inner city) accent at will in speeches and in front of her adoring press crews, and nobody notices. Nobody prints a thing.
Here, an ACTOR plays a role, and the NY press corpse wants to pretend the south will get upset.
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