2nd act A year later, Sean Penn returns to Iraq and files a personal, candid report from the front

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Wednesday, January 14, 2004 | Sean Penn, useless idiot

[hobbes1]

To be honest, I would say that this quote is the most telling piece of news delivered from Iraq....

When this term "mass graves" is used, one of the young Iraqi students chimes in with laughter: "This whole country is a mass grave. We live in a mass grave."

The NYTimes ain't printing that.....The rest of the article does a nice job of lauding the Americans on the ground....

[Gippers Brigade]

Yeah, but he's got a lot of nerve by flying half way around the globe to experience the situation first-hand. Jeez, he must hate America as much as Howard Dean.

[Space Wrangler]

Sattar had been a well-paid civil engineer. Now he drives the perilous 12 hours into Amman and 12 hours back to Baghdad, shuttling journalists and humanitarian aides, for a mere $300 per 24- hour round trip

Is it just me, or does this sound like a pretty decent wage? Two or three of these a week would make for a pretty comfortable living I would think. Come on Sean, you can do better than that can't you??

[presidio9]

Is it just me, or does this sound like a pretty decent wage?

You are right that Hollywood types tend to be out of touch with what most people would consider "righteous bucks." However, I think he was implying that the driver in this case was not being properly compensated for the danger involved with this particular rout.

[GSWarrior]

Sean Penn went to Iraq a year ago not as an actor, but as a father, a husband and an American.

Not as an actor? Oh....well, that's okay then...as long as he didn't go as an actor.

[boxerblues]

Now he drives the perilous 12 hours into Amman and 12 hours back to Baghdad, shuttling journalists and humanitarian aides, for a mere $300 per 24- hour round trip

When compared to some of the other wages we have seen posted ($100 a month for the police & soldiers) he is making very good money, maybe not in Sean's mind...does he have a mind?

[ironmaidenPR2717]

"I was expecting a lot worse."

I, too, expected a diatribe about how exploitive the U.S. presence has been over there. Obviously, he wasn't snarling like the usual rabid peace-lib. I did sense, however, that he was almost disappointed to find a much better standard of living there than he expected. It appears that nothing happened (thanks to the orderly protection of our military)to allow him to present himself as either tragically heroic or morally outraged. Poor Sean - no fodder for his next movie. (Of course, there's still part deux.)

[Burkeman1]

Me too. A few soft peddled sort of lefty remarks- but all in all not that bad. While reading it I kept expecting some ridiculous left wing cliche to be dropped. I was actually suprised that he knew who Pol Pot was and that he was evil. Not a great piece of work- but he didn't make an ass out himself.

[Doc Savage]

The incredible waste of electronic ink!!! Oh the humanity!!

[Ichneumon]

What does "cabron" mean?

Spanish slang/vulgarity dictionary: http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Spanish.html.

The word appears in two entries, both with and without the accent mark on the "o".

It's part of the extremely multi-lingual Alternative Dictionaries site, which also includes a very large glossary of English slang/vulgarities. It's a great site to browse for "colorful" idioms. For example the Spanish "ir a desgastar el petate" is an idiom for having sex, and literally translates as "to wear down the bedding".

[steplock]

"What's new is this tiny seed and taste of freedom.

It is a compelling experience to have been in Baghdad just one year ago, where not a single Iraqi expressed to me opinions outside Baathist party lines, and just one year later, when so many express their opinions and so many opinions compete for attention."

Sean Penn

If he did say this ... BRAVO!!!

[Feiny]

How about a little editing? I could not get through this article. It was poorly written and extremely boring.