Posted on 09/17/2007 5:20:24 AM PDT by Miami Vice
'WHEN WE go to war for oil, we say we go to war for oil," the Russian military officer said to the British officer. "When you go to war for oil, you say you go to war to liberate people."
Can you guess the name of the movie that contained this line?
Was it Brian DePalma's anti-war propaganda film "Redacted?"
Phil Donahue's "Body of War?"
Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha"?
It could have been any of these movies. After all, the "war for oil" mantra is a staple of the anti-American/anti-Iraq war crowd.
DePalma's film relates the tale of a war crime committed by American soldiers in Iraq in 2006. He quite bluntly states he made the film for the sole purpose of influencing politicians to stop the war.
"In Vietnam," he said, "when we saw the images and the sorrow of the people we were traumatizing and killing, we saw the soldiers wounded and brought back in body bags. We see none of that in this war . . . Pictures are what will stop the war."
This is the ultimate non-sequitur. Once again, the colossal ignorance, fatuity and fake expertise of the American elite liberal intelligentsia is revealed by these remarks.
Does DePalma know that Vietnam was the longest war in American history - despite the gory images he reveres? Does DePalma know that battle footage from World War II was not broadcast nightly into our living rooms as it was during Vietnam, yet, despite this, Vietnam lasted almost four times longer than World War II?
"President Bush does not want you to see this film," claims Phil Donahue about his own film, "Body of War," which tells the story of a soldier crippled by the fighting in Iraq. Of course, he never actually asked President Bush that question.
I would imagine it is a very compelling and moving story. So why would President Bush be afraid of a movie about a wounded soldier?
"Pride of the Marines" was a movie made about Marine Al Schmid, blinded at Guadalcanal. FDR didn't stop it.
In 1944, "The Purple Heart" talked about the torture and war-crimes trial of American airmen by the Japanese. FDR didn't stop it.
"The Memphis Belle," also from 1944, was a real documentary about a bombing mission over Europe. There is plenty of horror in this movie. The president didn't prevent its showing.
None of these movies, nor hundreds like them, elicited antiwar protests from Americans - does Donahue think the average American doesn't know about the horror of war?
Probably. Being a liberal, I'm sure he thinks Americans, especially the ones who disagree with him, are too stupid to think for themselves.
Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha" is about the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines.
Broomfield said about making the movie, "I realized that these soldiers were very, very poor kids, who had all left school unbelievably early. It was the first time they had all been out of the United States . . .
"They had no idea what they were doing in Iraq, and they felt let down by the Marine Corps. It was hard to condemn them out of hand as cold-blooded killers."
Like the "blood for oil" mantra by leftists, the idea that the soldiers in Iraq come from poor backgrounds with no education is part and parcel of the anti-war mythology. (The genesis of this myth can be traced back to the American Communist Eugene Debs.)
One of the Marines accused of the massacre (where the charges are slowly but surely evaporating), Sgt. Frank Wuterich, was a high school honor student and jazz trumpet player from Meriden, Conn. - where the median family income is $52,788 a year. He reenlisted after 9/11 and volunteered to go to Iraq.
Doesn't sound like he's poor and uneducated and didn't know what he was doing in Iraq.
Another accused Marine, L/Cpl. Justin Sharratt, is also a high school graduate and a former Boy Scout and Sea Cadet from Granger, Ind. - where the median household income is $82,400 a year. Doesn't sound poor and uneducated either, does he?
THE ANTI-WAR left needs to construct these myths about the American military to reinforce their propaganda machine. They also need to construct them to stoke their own religious fervor for their misinformation campaigns.
When, inevitably, these films win film-industry awards, recall what Orwell said in 1945, "One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool."
That was four years before the movie "The Red Danube" was made, which was the source for the mystery quote. It was communist antiwar/anti- American/anti-Western propaganda.
Some things never change. That's the way it is. *
Michael P. Tremoglie is a former Philadelphia police officer and the author of "A Sense of Duty," available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.
Lying is ok in the mind of America hating Defeatists so long as it brings the results they want. So to say this soldier or that soldier did some terrible deed or came from a shack in the hills when neither is true is ok so long as it sways opinion to the goal of defeat.
After all, we often hear about compassion, inclusion, tolerance, etc on the left. You will note we never hear “honesty” included in their characteristics.
What would the world look like if Iran owned all those oil fields?
Even if the reason we went into Iraq was 99% because of oil then I say it was worth it. The rest is feel good humanity stuff, but that is what we are supposed to be doing *helping those who can’t help themselves*.
And the sheep will believe. That’s what sheep do.
Hollywood in their minds is the pinnacle of all that is good.
God forgive Amerika.
Stability in the Gulf States = free flow of oil at market prices.
Only one of the several good reasons we are there.
Speaking of Hollywood going to War...AVOID the new movie “Valley of Elah” at all cost.
Another anti troop anti war film by Paul Haggis. This time on Iraq. (Yes this Iraq War). Can’t they make anything positive about us?
I listened to Michael Medveds review of it. Its an abomination and any Veteran should be outraged. None of the soldiers are seen in a positive light. One is nicknamed “Doc” because he gets a kick out of sticking his hands into insurgents wounds and saying “does this hurt?” He does this while the insurgents are screaming horribly. In one scene the driver of a Humvee speeds up to hit an Iraqi boy chasing a soccer ball, then after running over him he stops the vehicle, gets out and photographs the carnage he just made. In another scene a comment is made that suggest all the soldiers are doing drugs.
Precisely. The left believes that lying is OK if it’s for “the greater good” It’s a classic illustration of the ends justify the means mentality.
Al Gore admitted as much when he stated that the exaggerations of An Inconvenient Truth were “justified” because of the importance of the issue.
BS!
DePalma's career is in the toilet. He made this movie for the sole purpose of influencing Hollywood elites.
I smell a box office bomb.
As Louis B Mayer said - or was it Sam Goldwyn? - if you want to send a message, use Western Union!
I ragged on him the whole ride and he handled it very well, in fact he said that cab drivers all over America treated him the same way.
"The Valley of Elah". I try to avoid any movie starring Susan Sarandon. But Sarandon + a message film about the war in Iraq = total leftist garbage.
"Lions For Lambs". This one deals with Afghanistan. And who is a greater authority on Afghanistan than Robert Redford, Meryl Streep or Tom Cruise? They all star in this puke-fest, with Redford directing. It's set for release late this year, just in time for Hollywood to drown it in award nominations.
I'd never heard that quote by Orwell before, and it's SO true!
Did Scott Thomas Beauchamp write the screenplay for this movie, while he was writing articles for "The New Republic"?
starring Susan Sarandon and Al Gore's college room-mate...nuf said.
later
Susan Sarandon’s also currently starring in a comedy about a gym teacher called “Mr. Woodcock”.
Her career is in the toilet no matter how her agent tries to spin it.
Did he point a microphone in your face while he questioned “the audience”?
Did you remind him that his tv shows have been cancelled?
“Fake but accurate”. Goebbels would be proud at how they sell The Big Lie.
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