Judy Hamilton
25th November 2007, 01:03 AM (01:03)
How many American soldiers will lose their lives because of this
anti-war movie?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58802
That is the first question anyone who sees the recently released
anti-American film should ask. I hope
it will fail to find an audience in the United States. I have no doubt it
will be a hit with those who seek to destroy America.
While the pattern of Hollywood's anti-American commitment is the same as
it was in Vietnam, one of the major differences between Vietnam and Iraq is
the timing of the Hollywood movies. At least Hollywood generally waited until
the troops were out of Vietnam before their movies were released vilifying
American soldiers. Today, the studios are competing to get the movies out NOW
while our troops are still in the line of fire.
In my view and in the view of my fellow veterans, Redacted will cause untold
numbers of American casualties. The movie goes to extreme efforts to cast
the American troops in the worst possible light. In the film, a group of
psychopathic, demented American soldiers rape and kill an innocent Iraqi girl and
her family. If that sounds familiar, twenty years ago De Palma Casualties
of War featured another group of psychopathic, demented American soldiers
who rape and kill an innocent Vietnamese girl. Redacted implies that American
troops commit war crimes, are out of control and have total disregard for the
Iraqi people especially women and children. This is the same harsh rhetoric
that echoed through the halls of Congress and the streets of San Francisco and
New York during the Vietnam War. Our Congress, Hollywood and academics
became convinced that we, the American troops serving in Vietnam, were war criminals
Remembering all the movies in which the leading role was a Vietnam Veteran
either committing or permanently damaged by the war crimes he had witnessed, I
have to ask this question about Redacted: Are Writer/Producer Brian DePalma
and Financier Mark Cuban useful dupes for the Islamic terrorists in the same
way that Jane Fonda was for the Communists during Vietnam or
do these guys really believe that American troops are war criminals?
Today there are war crime claims against American troops similar to those
three decades ago against Vietnam Veterans. The most vocal critic today has
been Jesse MacBeth, a former Army ranger who claimed his fellow troops hung and
burned hundreds of Iraqi civilians. He talked about his many medals including
his Purple Heart and he quickly became the poster child of the anti-war,
anti-American, and anti-military organizations.
The problem was MacBeth never served in combat or even left the U.S. In
fact, he was a boot camp "wash out," tossed out of the Army after only 44 days.
When he was indicted for filing false disability claims with the Veterans
Administration, MacBeth was tried, convicted and sent to Federal prison.
When Rush Limbaugh condemned him as a phony soldier, it was Rush Limbaugh
who encountered the wrath of many in congress attacking him but not MacBeth.
MacBeths own admission that he lied, mattered little to those who stampeded
to this phonys defense accusing Limbaugh of falsely attacking a U.S.
soldier. To his credit, Limbaugh didn't blink.
American troops are not perfect but they are the best and most humane that
the world has to offer. How can we stop these unfounded and vicious attacks
on our troops?
Those who accused us, the Vietnam veterans, of war crimes thirty years ago
must be exposed for their false accusations. For the past three years the
Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation ("VVLF") has worked diligently to prove that
the troops were maligned. We believe that our last call to duty is to stop the
lies about the Vietnam soldiers in order to stop the same treatment of the
American troops today.
We believe we must send the message to Congress and especially to those
individuals in our government who are doing again today what was done to us
during and after the Vietnam War.
Col Bud Day, Americas highest decorated veteran, is the Chairman of the
VVLF Board and the majority of the board members are former POWs held in the
Hanoi Hilton. For them, this is personal. Every Vietnam Veteran has been
forced to fight the stain of war crimes allegations since the war ended more than
thirty years ago. POWs were threatened with their lives to "confess" to
being war criminals, only to return to an American public that was soon to be
brainwashed by Hollywood
I am personally familiar with several of these alleged war crimes having
cared for casualities with the First Infantry Division in 1968.
They are in no manner war criminals, and neither am I. And neither are the hundreds of thousands of other
Vietnam veterans falsely accused by Hollywood, the media, and Congress. The lies
are forever recorded in the Congressional Record. VVLF plans to submit for
inclusion to the Congressional Record the true facts repudiating the lies that
have persisted in the Congressional Record for almost forty years.
As a final indignity, DePalma closes the movie with a montage of picture of
dead Iraqis. Before the montage begins, the screen goes black and then the
title "Collateral Damage" comes up with the claim "Actual photographs from the
Iraq War" printed beneath it, and then the slide show begins. One problem
though ...among the emotionally draining pictures of real dead bodies, I began
to notice that the actors from the film resemble those seen dead. Did they
really pose their actors in mortal positions to pull at the audience's
heartstrings?
In the beginning, the film is touted as fictionalized. Exactly how
are we suppose to know what is fiction and what is not? Few would realize
the cost in Americans lives and blood Redacted and similar films might exact
when they are shown in foreign theaters
anti-war movie?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58802
That is the first question anyone who sees the recently released
anti-American film should ask. I hope
it will fail to find an audience in the United States. I have no doubt it
will be a hit with those who seek to destroy America.
While the pattern of Hollywood's anti-American commitment is the same as
it was in Vietnam, one of the major differences between Vietnam and Iraq is
the timing of the Hollywood movies. At least Hollywood generally waited until
the troops were out of Vietnam before their movies were released vilifying
American soldiers. Today, the studios are competing to get the movies out NOW
while our troops are still in the line of fire.
In my view and in the view of my fellow veterans, Redacted will cause untold
numbers of American casualties. The movie goes to extreme efforts to cast
the American troops in the worst possible light. In the film, a group of
psychopathic, demented American soldiers rape and kill an innocent Iraqi girl and
her family. If that sounds familiar, twenty years ago De Palma Casualties
of War featured another group of psychopathic, demented American soldiers
who rape and kill an innocent Vietnamese girl. Redacted implies that American
troops commit war crimes, are out of control and have total disregard for the
Iraqi people especially women and children. This is the same harsh rhetoric
that echoed through the halls of Congress and the streets of San Francisco and
New York during the Vietnam War. Our Congress, Hollywood and academics
became convinced that we, the American troops serving in Vietnam, were war criminals
Remembering all the movies in which the leading role was a Vietnam Veteran
either committing or permanently damaged by the war crimes he had witnessed, I
have to ask this question about Redacted: Are Writer/Producer Brian DePalma
and Financier Mark Cuban useful dupes for the Islamic terrorists in the same
way that Jane Fonda was for the Communists during Vietnam or
do these guys really believe that American troops are war criminals?
Today there are war crime claims against American troops similar to those
three decades ago against Vietnam Veterans. The most vocal critic today has
been Jesse MacBeth, a former Army ranger who claimed his fellow troops hung and
burned hundreds of Iraqi civilians. He talked about his many medals including
his Purple Heart and he quickly became the poster child of the anti-war,
anti-American, and anti-military organizations.
The problem was MacBeth never served in combat or even left the U.S. In
fact, he was a boot camp "wash out," tossed out of the Army after only 44 days.
When he was indicted for filing false disability claims with the Veterans
Administration, MacBeth was tried, convicted and sent to Federal prison.
When Rush Limbaugh condemned him as a phony soldier, it was Rush Limbaugh
who encountered the wrath of many in congress attacking him but not MacBeth.
MacBeths own admission that he lied, mattered little to those who stampeded
to this phonys defense accusing Limbaugh of falsely attacking a U.S.
soldier. To his credit, Limbaugh didn't blink.
American troops are not perfect but they are the best and most humane that
the world has to offer. How can we stop these unfounded and vicious attacks
on our troops?
Those who accused us, the Vietnam veterans, of war crimes thirty years ago
must be exposed for their false accusations. For the past three years the
Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation ("VVLF") has worked diligently to prove that
the troops were maligned. We believe that our last call to duty is to stop the
lies about the Vietnam soldiers in order to stop the same treatment of the
American troops today.
We believe we must send the message to Congress and especially to those
individuals in our government who are doing again today what was done to us
during and after the Vietnam War.
Col Bud Day, Americas highest decorated veteran, is the Chairman of the
VVLF Board and the majority of the board members are former POWs held in the
Hanoi Hilton. For them, this is personal. Every Vietnam Veteran has been
forced to fight the stain of war crimes allegations since the war ended more than
thirty years ago. POWs were threatened with their lives to "confess" to
being war criminals, only to return to an American public that was soon to be
brainwashed by Hollywood
I am personally familiar with several of these alleged war crimes having
cared for casualities with the First Infantry Division in 1968.
They are in no manner war criminals, and neither am I. And neither are the hundreds of thousands of other
Vietnam veterans falsely accused by Hollywood, the media, and Congress. The lies
are forever recorded in the Congressional Record. VVLF plans to submit for
inclusion to the Congressional Record the true facts repudiating the lies that
have persisted in the Congressional Record for almost forty years.
As a final indignity, DePalma closes the movie with a montage of picture of
dead Iraqis. Before the montage begins, the screen goes black and then the
title "Collateral Damage" comes up with the claim "Actual photographs from the
Iraq War" printed beneath it, and then the slide show begins. One problem
though ...among the emotionally draining pictures of real dead bodies, I began
to notice that the actors from the film resemble those seen dead. Did they
really pose their actors in mortal positions to pull at the audience's
heartstrings?
In the beginning, the film is touted as fictionalized. Exactly how
are we suppose to know what is fiction and what is not? Few would realize
the cost in Americans lives and blood Redacted and similar films might exact
when they are shown in foreign theaters