'War' Story (NYP 4-star review of powerful new Ken Burns WWII documentary)

NY Post ^ | 9/20/07 | Adam Buckman

[Captain Peter Blood]

Ken Burns is Left-Wing Liberal film maker and I refuse to watch any of his stuff. He really gave a slanted version about Jazz & the Blues in that documentary so why expect anything different here.

[FreedomCalls]

More than any other treatment of the war, this one really gets to the central issue - the killing, and how ordinary people did it.

So WWII is reduced to a story about nothing but killing. I guess we won because we killed more than they did. Or did we win because we killed fewer than they did? Ph well. Everything is equal. Moral equivalency at work. No noble causes were involved. No liberation from oppression. No fighting for freedom. Just killing. I see.

[mission9]

Master Sgt. Paul Smith from Tampa, Florida, the first Medal of Honor winner of Operation Iraqi Freedom is as heroic as Audie Murphy.

What we have is a remnant of heroes were now the few bear the burden for the slovenly millions. This remnant is as brave as any who served in WWII. But because all volunteer, and none are drafted, I hold the aggregate lot of today’s professional force in higher regard. GWB never called us to enlist, GWB called us to go shopping.I do fault our leaders, but our leaders are a reflection of us.
And even against that vacuous tide, thousands of men, the brave, my heroes such as Pat Tillman left the flatulent life and served. Which is better - To be called by an inner voice? Or called by a leader’s speech, or called by a draft notice?
You say thankfully they have not been called, I say regrettably they have not been called. This war will not be won, until we are one, until we as a nation are invested in it 100% Make no mistake, they will hit us again, and they will draw much more blood in our homeland than 911.

[mission9]

Kind of like the ultimate endpoint of “Blackhawk Down” - combat is just about protecting the guy next to you. Hollyweird has no clue.

[SergeiRachmaninov]

Again, you have some valid points. But 400,000 American warriors died in WWII, and it is not advisable to seem to disparage that. Some of them died in actions where they probably ~expected~ to die, as in Normandy. Everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan expects to get back home, although it doesn't always work out.

I think it is enough to point to the excellence of our present forces and to celebrate them for volunteering. No one should doubt that there are individual acts of bravery in Iraq as commendable as anything in WWII or any other war.

Still...numbers count in a certain way.

You are justified, IMO, in feeling that our present warriors are not sufficiently honored. Still, that cause is not advanced by trying to take the WWII generation down a peg.

[driftless2]

"Dubuque"

You mean they actually shot part of that film near Dubuque? First time I ever heard of that. And it's "Sands of Iwo Jima" not Shores.

[RGSpincich]

Reminder bump

Airs Sunday on PBS. Check you local listings or link below.

The War schedule

[i_dont_chat]

So WWII is reduced to a story about nothing but killing. I guess we won because we killed more than they did. Or did we win because we killed fewer than they did? Ph well. Everything is equal. Moral equivalency at work. No noble causes were involved. No liberation from oppression. No fighting for freedom. Just killing. I see.

I think you missed the point. Yes, it involved noble causes, and liberation from oppression. But to win a war involves killing. That is what war is.

What do you do when someone is willing to DIE in order to kill you? You must kill him first. Some might call that pre-emptive war. So be it.