Aye aye Admiral!
Posted on 02/05/2007 7:57:54 PM PST by MotleyGirl70
FORT LEWIS, Wash. - Sean Penn hunched alone over his coffee Monday in a Starbucks shop, a stone's throw from the DuPont overpass where supporters of Lt. Ehren Watada held their signs aloft and a much smaller number of foes counter-protested.
The actor had been out there with the Iraq war protesters in the chilly fog, which dampened the air but not their spirits.
Watada was inside Fort Lewis, his first day in a military courtroom for a court martial that will decide his fate for refusing to go to Iraq and for talking publicly about his reasons.
Penn was about to leave for the airport and return to the San Francisco area, where he's filming a movie. He said he knows what the outcome of the trial will be.
"He'll be convicted and go to jail," he said in a quiet voice. "I think he knows that."
Penn, famous for his work in films such as "Mystic River" and "Dead Man Walking," called Monday's rally great theater with all the elements: large banners praising Watada's courage, anti-war songs, speeches and larger than life-size puppets of President Bush and top administration officials.
At least 400 people converged on the Interstate 5 overpass and at nearby Iafrati Park, where most of the demonstrators gathered to listen to speeches from a makeshift stage. The size of the rally grew all day and protesters planned to stay until nightfall.
Anti-Watada groups were there, too. They were far outnumbered but mingled easily.
Jeff Brigham, a 20-year Army veteran from Tumwater, Wash., held his "Jail Weasel Watada" sign high.
Erica Stephen, whose husband spent a year in Iraq and is stationed at Fort Lewis, carried a sign calling Watada a traitor. She waved it at a soldier in uniform driving toward the Army post, and he smiled at her.
"He signed up and he can't pick where to go," Stephen said of Watada. "Every soldier I know is against him."
Penn said he was impressed by the turnout.
"But I'm not that surprised really when I see the 400,000 to 500,0000 people in Washington, D.C., last week (for the national anti-war rally.) So I think there is a wave beginning."
He said he came to the area because he's opposed the Iraq war since the beginning and because the Watada family invited him.
Watada supporters included numerous Veterans for Peace chapters from Washington and Oregon and other anti-violence and anti-war groups.
One of the speakers, Darrell Anderson, a former Army specialist now living in Georgia, told how he had gone AWOL to Canada in 2005 while on leave from Iraq. He said he spent 18 months in Canada and then returned to the military to settle up last October.
"They let me go," he said. "I had a Purple Heart and I told them I witnessed war crimes." His punishment, he said, was a less than an honorable discharge. He has been protesting the war and supporting disaffected soldiers across the country ever since.
"He's going to jail," Anderson said of Watada. "This is a day of mourning. He's going to jail for doing what's right."
Aye aye Admiral!
So what is Seans Penns great military record. Unlike Clark gable, Lee Marvin, James Stewart todays stars only play heroes.
Once a Spicoli... always a Spicoli...
You Hollywood guys really DO get all the good drugs, don't you?
Acorns don't fall far from the tree. This is why Dems need more abortions.....fewer acorns
I'd love to see how they came up with those numbers.
That is a true American Patriot! He braved a hot fresh coffee at Starbucks, a Monday morning of no work, a chilly fog, and damp air... when most all of America has real jobs and are frikin' working on a frikin' Monday!
You know as a general rule, the majority of Hollywood revolts me, taking political views just for the sake of a political stance, but I think this guy Penn, in his own right brained artistic way, really does believe he's doing the right thing.
Flame away, I don't agree with anything the guy does (especially his trip to Iraq - which seemed treasonish,) but he does come across as genuine in his feelings, not spewing angry hate at the top of his lungs like so many of his peers.
If we've got to put up with the Hollywood types, I'd rather see them doing, not saying. So I think he's out in left field, at least he puts himself out there instead of issuing statements from a lofty perch.
The magpies have found raw meat.
When will hollyweird and Watada's fans realize this isn't an episode of Perry Mason? This is a Military Court Martial under the UCMJ.
As for Watada, he is either a coward, which I feel, or he enlisted deliberately to pull this stunt, which I am coming closer to belieivng is also the truth.
Bottom line, regardless, he abandoned his men when they need him most. To me, that is unforgiveable!
As for Sean Penn, who the He** really cares about that nutcase?
I'll look for the article tomorrow regarding that recent protest in Washington, D.C.
Flame away, I don't agree with anything the guy does (especially his trip to Iraq - which seemed treasonish,) but he does come across as genuine in his feelings, not spewing angry hate at the top of his lungs like so many of his peers.
If we've got to put up with the Hollywood types, I'd rather see them doing, not saying. So I think he's out in left field, at least he puts himself out there instead of issuing statements from a lofty perch.
The Nazis believed they were "doing the right thing." The man shilled for Saddam Hussein, a modern Hitler, on his trip to Iraq.
Penn is one of the worst at spewing venom.
And all his protests do, contrary to your assessment, "at least he puts himself out there instead of issuing statements from a lofty perch", in reality give aid and encouragement to the terrorists and hurt the morale of the good guys. He's not a courageous idealist, he's a self-absorbed, narcissistic traiter who goes along with the Hollywood herd.
As a previous poster noted:
"He braved a hot fresh coffee at Starbucks, a Monday morning of no work, a chilly fog, and damp air... when most all of America has real jobs and are frikin' working on a frikin' Monday!"
If it wasn't for NPR, I'd never had known who this POS Watada is.
I'm not so close minded that I don't have liberal friends, in fact, disagreements aside, I can appreciate a healthy arguement or discussion from an opposing view.
All I'm saying, and that's all I'm saying, is that the guy seems like someone a regular joe can speak to without the conversation instantly devolving into some canned lefty elevator speech. I could easily be wrong, just my impression.
I've seen/heard Penn spew a lot of idiocy in the last few years, but what he said today was the most ignorant and obnoxious stuff out of his mouth, ever. Even Spicoli was wiser and better informed.
Sean Penn *YAWN*
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