Posted on 06/25/2004 9:31:35 AM PDT by kattracks
When Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" came out in theaters, many criticized its violence. The fact that some in Hollywood's film industry leveled this attack absolutely floored me. It just seemed odd that the folks who brought us "Kill Bill" suddenly had a problem with "Kill Jesus."
Enough. Mel Gibson rightly countered that Christ's crucifixion wasn't pretty or nice. It was violent, brutal, ugly and gory to the absolute extreme. It was, as the Pope himself later surmised, "as it was."Sometimes we don't like gore. When it comes to gratuitous, meaningless, repetitive gore, I agree. Again, just look to Hollywood for that. But meaningful, truthful, powerful gore does have a place. As Gibson discovered, there's no nice way to portray Christ's death. Just like Steven Spielberg discovered there's no nice way to cover the brutality of war or the senseless evil of the Holocaust.
Sometimes gore is the story. And we have to understand the gore to understand the evil that precipitated the gore. We need to put the gore in perspective. That's why I think we need to see more gore from the folks who love to dish it out.
We need to understand the reality of that gore, and we need to understand it again and again. That's why I differ from my colleagues in the media, even the fine organization with whom I'm associated, FOX News, when I say, show me those beheadings of innocents like Paul Johnson and 33-year-old South Korean humanitarian worker Kim Sun-il.
Show me the senselessness of their killings. Show me the evil behind their killings. Show me it. Show me all of it. And don't sanitize it. Don't blur it, mask it, color it or frame it. Don't gloss over it and try to make us not see it or be appalled by it. You see, I want us appalled. I want us angry. I want us outraged. I want us sickened.
Again and again, on the hour, every hour, every day. Don't get me wrong, I want there to be some warning, for children especially. But I still want it shown. Just like I want people to see Nick Berg's tragic killing. Just like I want to see - repeatedly - those planes hitting the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. I want the world to see people jumping out of those towers, brave men and women losing everything that day. I want all of us who survived hell to see hell, to see the tears and know the loss. I want us to relive those days, every day, and not forget for a moment the evil that perpetuated it, condoned it and sanctioned it.
For some, it's heady stuff. But I say, these are heady, sickening days. The war on terror is that kind of war. It is ugly. It is gory. It is stomach-churning. We do ourselves a disservice as victims when we don't show our victims. We do ourselves an injustice when we don't look at the injustice of terrorists.
That's why I say, with some caution, to relax our caution. Nothing rouses a nation's anger in a war more than when we see the victims of a war - our victims, our friends and our countrymen. They did not have to die. But they did. Why should we gloss over the fact that they did?
I think it cheapens their sacrifice when we try to sanitize their loss. There's no nice way to say someone was beheaded and butchered. There's only one way to talk about it, and that's to show it.
I want us to get angry, outraged, furious and incensed because this is evil in its purest and simplest form. We must see it for what it is, not cover it up for what it is not.
Civilized people have a very difficult time understanding uncivilized bastards.
We should be less civilized and more like the bastards who want us dead.
So, after giving fair warning to impressionable minds, I want to leave some disturbing impressions of death at its most violent and chilling evil at its most warped.
It's not a pretty sight.
But then again, war never is.
Neil Cavuto is the author of "More Than Money" (Regan Books, June 2004) and managing editor of Business News at FOX News Channel. He is also the host of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" and "Cavuto on Business."
COPYRIGHT 2004 NEIL CAVUTO
Great read.
I'm with you. We have to get over being squeamish about the killing of these cock-a-roaches. That means we have to hate them. Hate them sufficiently to do war with them. That's why caricatures of the "Japs" and Germans were allowed in WWII. Because we had to dehumanize them or we would freeze up at the crucial moment and not go through with the killing blow. That's what our leadership did with Fallooooojehr. They didn't execute the "Coup de Grace". And this war is different because we kill with soldiers but we pay with civilians. We are going to have to endure more death and misery because some don't take this war seriously.
Bullcrap. We aren't "better" than them. Civilization is a thin veneer. To think we are superior is decadent weakness. If they want to get down in the mud and tussle, then we'd better be better mud-tusslers than they are. And if we're not then we'd better get prepared because we didn't choose this fight, and they're not going to stop attacking just because we don't want to play. The best way to save our soldiers is to let them take and keep the initiative. This damned defensive crap is responsible for at least a third of the casualties, if you ask me.
I'm well rehearsed in the argument that if you don't like it don't watch (we've had our TV unplugged for two months now), but some parents aren't responsible and the images are, needless to say, inappropriate for young children.
Anybody who wants to view it can do so on the internet.
In war, an enemy must be defeated, demoralized, and destroyed...thats how you win. We are not doing that in Iraq. We didn't do that in Vietnam or Korea either. To win the WOT, we must fight to win. War is for men not sissy PC metrosexuals, not appeasers, Oprah and Dr. Phil wannabees. Hopefully someone in this admin will wake up and realize that. Muslims generally think in Old Testament terms..."an eye for an eye". We cannot win this war by fighting "civilized" or "western". We will win only if we kill more of them than they kill us. That's pretty logical. That's all the enemy understands. If we really want to win, things are going to get ugly...real ugly.
"In war, an enemy must be defeated, demoralized, and destroyed...thats how you win. We are not doing that in Iraq. We didn't do that in Vietnam or Korea either. To win the WOT, we must fight to win."
amen... You said it much better than I.
bump
No one will force you to watch it. Change the channel, turn off the TV. But I am tired of the media, which whines anytime they think the gov. censors them, censoring what I can watch under the assumption that I cannot handle it.
And I am tired of a media that will show a pyramid of naked terrorists over and over to prove how awful our soldiers are refusing to show how awful those very same terrorists are when given the chance.
I have been reading Freerepublic for quite some time but have never replied before now. This may fit my screen name but,...if everytime those monsters behead one of ours couldn't we kill three of theirs? I agree, there will be no end to this unless we grind them to dust.
BARBARIANS
Everyone must become familiar with this old concept, and realize it is now here and new again.
Barbarians brought down Rome.
Now, barbarians are at our gates.
They have been in existence since the dawn of man.
They now use our technological advances and our moral sensitivities to their own advantage.
This is the reason the Crusades happened.
It is high time Americans and the rest of the world understand this.
Our "thin veneer of civilization" will disappear if these barbarians are allowed to dictate on the world stage. For us to keep that from happening, we must steel ourselves to accept that we must be ready and willing if necessary to do what they did in The Crusades: "Kill them all and let God sort them out" with great apologies to those relatively powerless non-terrorists who live in their midst.
The Geneva Conventions do not apply here, much as any treaty never applies to those who have not signed that treaty or carried out its dictates. We must demand an immediate end to that discussion. We must also learn to accept that we must kill some who may not have been involved in the terrorism to get those who are... in fact, we may have to kill a lot of innocents.
If we lose here, we face a return to a city-state or even lesser civilization.
The Middle Ages, and even the Dark Ages await us if we lose.
If we lose this war, we (including France) lose civilization.
FReegards.
.
Yup, we need to take the gloves off like hopefully we are in Fallujah. Killing 20 to 25 of them at a pop is a step in the right direction. As to a disclaimer: If the sports programs can do the news and if the score is known and someone wants to watch the event w/o knowing the score, they tell us: "Look away from your screen; OK, now the score is gone, you can look again at your screen".....methinks this could be done with The Gore.
Agree.
Not to be confused with Hilary's old law firm... 'Dewey, Cheatum and Howe.'
BTTT
George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent
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