Posted on 05/12/2006 8:55:00 AM PDT by doesnt suffer fools gladly
Film star and director Mel Gibson has launched a scathing attack on US President George W Bush, comparing his leadership to the barbaric rulers of the Mayan civilisation in his new film Apocalypto.
The epic, due for release later this year, captures the decline of the Maya kingdom and the slaughter of thousands of inhabitants as human sacrifices in a bid to save the nation from collapsing.
Gibson reveals he used present day American politics as an inspiration, claiming the government callously plays on the nation's insecurities to maintain power.
He tells British film magazine Hotdog, "The fear-mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys".
Internal Enemies Device
Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so!
Fortunately, I gave this maniac no money for 'Passion' and will continue to ignore him. I knew he was an ego-maniac!!
HE's taken some good positions, like supporting TErri Schiavo. I thought he fundraised for bush too. Whatever, they can lock him up for treason and throw away the key now, for all i care
Gibson certainly goes too far here, but I can understand his sentiments about the administration and Iraq. For some people Bush is a lot like Johnson, and their emotions about him have gotten as extreme and envenomed as feelings about Lyndon Johnson were four decades ago.
It's the price of taking a new, ambitious, and risky turn in foreign policy. Perhaps the gamble pays off in the end, but in the meantime, those who propose and implement it have to deal with a lot of objections. Add gas prices and Katrina and indifference to big government and deficits to casualties and reversals in Iraq and you can see why some people think and talk like Mel now.
Bringing liberty to Afghanistan and Iraq (same war, same enemy) was part of the exit plan, which can be debated. But the war is, was and always will be about taking out The Taliban and Saddam Hussein, and engaging the radical islamists where they live, train and work. Which, despite all the moans and protests, is precisely what's happening. We're fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We're fighting them in Iraq. And they haven't been able to hit us at home in five years. The war wasn't some arbitrary expansion of democracy, it was a response to an atrocity that came to our shores in the name of islam. And it's being won, despite these constantly attempts to demean the mission.
As to Clinton and the nonexistent conservative double-standard, if Clinton had been honest about the first WTC attack and its origins in 1993 and responded adequately (rather than firing a couple of cruise missiles at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the middle of the night a few months later), conservatives would have supported him. I know I would have. But providing air cover for the KLA and the islamists in Kosovo was an entirely different matter. There is no rational comparison between Afghanistan/Iraq and Kosovo.
We are fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq now, precisely because this war (e.g. destruction of the Ba'thist secular regime, created new recruting opportunities for them. Iraq is not a fly-paper but a fly hatchery for Islamofascists. Let me also note that our allies in both Iraq and Afghanistan have been persecuting and expelling Christians and women with our tax dollars.
A secular regime where every official document begins with the words "In the name of God the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate". A secular ruler who added the words "Allah Akbar", written in his own hand, to his nation's flag.
Iraq is not a fly-paper but a fly hatchery for Islamofascists.
For Zarqawi, it most definitely was fly-paper, but I digress. The fall of Hussein didn't create recruiting opportunities for the islamists, our response to their act of war did (i.e., the fact that we were there). That doesn't mean these terrorists from across the Middle East weren't already ready, willing and able to kill kafir for Allah, it just means our presence there gave them the opportunity to do it. Should we not respond to the mass slaughter of our civilians because our response might be seen as aggression by some terminally misguided future jihadis in the middle east?
In every war this will ever fight, the enemy will always propagandize our efforts and use that to recruit and motivate resistance. That's the nature of war. It's not a sound basis for opposing this one.
I don't support the President on practically anything and haven't for years. Doesn't make me any less of a conservative though. Of course in the minds of the simple, like Hannity, it probably does. But I could care less.
Neither does the anti-American,anti-military, leftist, commie liberals, France or the ENEMEDIA. That puts you in great company!
Doesn't make me any less of a conservative though.
True!
My point is that some on this thread are accusing Mel Gibson of "changing" because of his success and thinking that he is NOW trying to win back the favor of the Hollywood liberals. IMO that is not the case. He has NEVER been a supported of George W. Bush, and it is a mistake to assume that because someone makes a religious movie, or is against abortion, (or in your case is a conservative), that doesn't automatically mean that person does or ever has supported President Bush.
You say you are a conservative, I will take your word on that. I have no idea where Mr. Gibson stands, and I really don't care.
So what else is new?
Gibson, meet Mencken (circa 1921):
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
bump
Nice knowing ya, Mel. Buh Bye.
"If I could return my copy of the Passion of the Christ to get my money back, I would."
Wouldn't it be something if a bunch of us all of sudden started dumping all of our used copies of our DVD on ebay?
Dear nopardons,
Why do I care about this?
I've never, ever said that Mel Gibson is a conservative of any stripe.
sitetest
Good grief.....get off that damned pedestal and come back down to earth!
Dear nopardons,
"Because it is VERY political and different from just name calling."
Actually, I agree. Mr. Gibson, in comparing Mr. Bush's "fear-mongering" to the feel of his movie, is speaking POLITICALLY. So Mr. Gibson's an idiot liberal.
I coulda told you that a while back.
SO WHAT??
What does that have to do with his DUI, his alcoholism, his nutjob father, his anti-semitic rantings, his apologies, etc.?
His political views, stupid and uninformed as they may be, aren't relevant, aren't of the same quality or kind, aren't anywhere near as evil or vexatious, as the stuff he said while drunk.
sitetest
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