The Quiet Conservative September 1, 2007
“I knew I had a story” - Hollywood Hates the Troops
On the Drudge Report today is the buzz about Brian Depalma’s newest movie about the Iraq war.
Well, not the whole war. Well, not even most of it. Well, not even really any of it. The movie is
about the rape and murder of a girl and her family by a group of soldiers. You know, those
bloodthirsty animals that push imperial hegemony on behalf of racist Republicans by invading
peaceful non violent Iraq. That is the line this season isn’t it? They tried the line in 2006 that
military people were all uneducated and without choices, so they got stuck in Iraq. But that
backfired on them. Rather than sympathy and massive peace marches, they got pictures and videos
from internet savvy troops laughing at the liberal elites and making fun of them. Some people just
don’t know their place. So it is back to the standard that our troops are bloodthirsty killers.
Hollywood is comfortable with that.
Depalma’s Redacted is all the buzz in Venice, where anybody who is anybody is gathered for the
film festival. Nowhere in the glowing press is there any hint this just the sequel to Casualties of
War- the anti-American smear movie you remember about America’s involvement in Vietnam That
movie was about the rape and murder of a girl by bloodthirsty American soldiers pushing imperial
hegemony on behalf of racist Republicans in the Vietnam war.
In the press interview with Sky News Depalma is quoted “When I read about the Mahmudiyah
incident in Iraq 2006- five US soldiers raped a local girl, killed her and her family and later tried
to disguise it as an insurgent attack – I knew I had a story.” In an interview with ABC he states,
“The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American
people.” And “The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get
the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against the war.” Well, isn't
that special. In World War Two we had John Ford and John Wayne making war movies that were
patriotic and supportive of the war and the troops. They wanted us to win. Now we have the
Hollywood left making anti American war movies aimed at defeating out troops and losing the war.
Well, that was Depalma’s confession. Let's elaborate on it for you. If you hate America and the
military you know you have a story in this rape and murder. But what story do you have? Do you
have the fact that there are over a hundred thousand members of the military in Iraq? Do you have
the fact that there are story after story of these Americans doing heroic deeds everyday? Do you see
the humanitarian efforts by individual soldiers to make the live of Iraqi people better? The building
projects? The outreach to the people? The purple fingers waiving in the air as people, many for the
first time in their lives, had a say in their government and did so under the protection of the US
military? The previous column on July 5th, 2007 showed the valor of such US servicemen. No
story there for Depalma.
Do you indicate what life was like under Saddam Hussein? Does a story about the children’s prison
where the small children (as young as five) of dissidents were held hostage peak your interest? Mass
graves? Poison gas used on civilians? People shoved in industrial shredders? Fed to lions and tigers
for fun? Rape as a standard method of torture and not only condoned, but endorsed by Hussein’s
government? Of course not! But five soldiers that rape and kill a girl and her family, “I knew I had
a story.” We can safely ignore the hundred thousand to bring you five.
The movie isn't out here yet, so maybe the fact the killers were prosecuted and sent to prison might
be integral to the story. OK… who are we kidding? That would mean it is a movie about a group of
scumbags committing a crime and not an indictment of the US military. Depalma already said it was
a story about the military. No, the film will have to be just about the crime itself and be used to push
an anti-American, anti-war message. This little crime stands as a metaphor for a bigger crime, the
US military and the war in Iraq. It is the standard pathetic rant of the left against the most honorable
segment of our society, those that choose to serve in the military. America did not condone the
incident at Mahmudiyah. Neither did the military. But any large organization is going to have bad
apples. There are crimes committed by military personnel in peacetime too. So what? They get
arrested and tried and sent to prison then too. That has nothing to do with the larger picture.
Civilians commit crimes all the time. You may even remember hearing recently of a Louisiana
Democratic congressman with ninety thousand dollars of bribe money in his freezer. The American
system doesn't condone illegal activities- at least the rape and murder part. The cold cash might be a
different story. Those that committed the crime in Iraq were investigated by the military, tried by the
military, and imprisoned by the military. Good for us. But it isn't good to focus on that part for an
anti-American smear job masquerading as a movie.
Depalma’s previous Casualties of War was a similar indictment of Vietnam War. It sucked as an
example. History has lent an ever growing view that we did not so much as lose the war over there,
as over here. The communist forces of Russia and Vietnam did not beat us, the left in this country
did. The Depalmas did. In the aftermath of the war the Democratic controlled Congress cut off
funding to the South Vietnamese Government. What followed was the fall of the South two years
later, and then the reeducation camps, the boat people, and the killing fields of Cambodia. Thirty
years later Vietnam is driving towards capitalism and out of what socialism caused in death and
destruction and horror. The true crimes in the war were done on behalf of the communist forces.
They were done on a massive scale. Those stories found little attraction with the pampered socialists
here. The movie Depalma made about Vietnam was a snarky little hit piece of anti American
propaganda and that is how it is viewed nowadays. You may have missed his movies on the
reeducation camps, the boat people, and the killing fields.
There is no need to see Redacted when it comes out, you should hate paying money to anti-
American leftists. See it eventually on the TV because propaganda should be seen- then shown for
the shoddy lies they are. It might be The Quiet Conservative's first movie review. But we won’t be
going to Venice where the European in-crowd is in a buzz to see it. We will wait till it is playing in a
mostly empty theater some afternoon here in the Midwest. Then we will go home and watch a John
Ford/ John Wayne classic just to get the taste out of our mouths.