Where has the Hollywood anti-war lobby gone?
In the weeks leading up to war in Iraq actors Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, Sean Penn and Janeane Garofalo joined a cast of thousands in a fierce Hollywood resistance played out in protest marches and from the sofas of television talk shows.
But with the war in its waning hours, all is quiet on the western coast — leading conservatives to suggest that Garofalo and her fellow travelers are in full retreat from a public backlash and feeling chastened by a swift American victory.
Liberals fear Hollywood’s left-wing stars are being muzzled and their careers placed in jeopardy from what actor Tim Robbins, called in a recent speech a “climate of fear.”
But Mike Farrell, star of television’s “MASH” and organizer of “Artists United to Win Without War,” told Reuters that those who joined the loyal opposition in Hollywood had not been silenced and certainly were not backing down.
Instead, he said, the “huge coalition” of those opposed to the war were gathering strength and preparing to fight another day — over post-war Iraq, domestic issues and future “preemptive strikes” by the Bush administration.
“What’s the point of me saying anything right now, while they’re in the end zone doing the dance and spiking the football?” Farrell said. “They are going to do the thing they are going to do, but we’ll be heard from when it’s appropriate and in the manner that is appropriate.”
Mike Farrell’s statements don’t surprise me at all – - how about an opinion on the liberation of Iraq, Mike? How about the Iraqi’s living in Iraq as well as the United States and other regions throughout the world who have thanked President Bush and the military for stepping in to liberate their country?
Of course it would be impossible for these Hollywood pundits to state anything positive has and is coming from the military action.
Silence is golden.
I wouldn’t call it eerie, though – - but rather a welcome change
Funny how Farrell is using some of the President’s jargon in his little statement. Sounds much like Bush when he said “At an hour and time of our choosing”.
Poor Mike.
“Reilly” writes:
‘Mike Farrell’s statements don’t surprise me at all – - how about an opinion on the liberation of Iraq, Mike? How about the Iraqi’s living in Iraq as well as the United States and other regions throughout the world who have thanked President Bush and the military for stepping in to liberate their country?’
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May I respectfully refer you to the scholarly post of The Reverend Gary James of Detroit posted at a different thread? Perhaps its restatement will establish that not ALL Iraquis living in the States share your unqualified enthusiasm for the present occupation of their country by American and British (now don’t foget the Brits) forces.
It quotes as follows:
‘This morning I want to give you a thumbnail sketch of the history of US involvement in the middle-east and Iraq.
‘If one were to visit Detroit’s large Muslim community and listen to the stories of the Iraqi Shiites, who sought refuge in the US following the Gulf War, you would hear some of the most fervent anti-Saddam sentiments anywhere outside of the Pentagon offices of Donald Rumfield. The Shiites make up 60% of the Iraqi population and have been brutally suppressed by Saddam for decades with villages massacred and thousands “disappeared.”
The piece of history that is rarely brought to light is that, like Saddam’s oppression of the Kurds and his use of biological weapons against the Islamic government in Iran, his brutalization of the Shiites was conducted with American knowledge at the same time his regime was receiving generous supplies of weapons and aid from Washington. In our alliance with Iraq, during the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S., with a calculated indifference, all but endorsed the use of weapons of mass destruction against the Iraqi people.
Our rift with Saddam occurred with the Gulf War, not his use of weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein had thought he had received an endorsement from the US Ambassador at the time, just days before his invasion Kuwait. After all, Saddam Hussein was our ally. On the long list of Middle Eastern dictators, Saddam was an enemy of radical Islam, engaged in a war against our enemy Iran, pro-western, his was a secular government, albeit a dictatorship, and he was also a monster, but he was “our monster.” The Persian Gulf War was a lesson he did not expect. The Iraqi army was devastated. American losses numbered in the low hundreds, estimates of Iraqi deaths range from 20,000 to 100,000. Burned into my memory are the television images of the vicious American massacre of thousands of retreating Iraqi troops on what became known as the “Highway to Hell,” also the bombing of the Amiriya bomb shelter in Baghdad, what we euphemistically call “collateral damage,” in which 600 to 1000 civilians were killed. We wanted to teach Saddam a lesson, a lesson also intended for all the other rulers in the Middle East.
Many Shiite men from the Detroit community joined the movement to liberate Iraq at the time of the Gulf War. Today they tell stories of the annihilation of their movement by Saddam while US troops watched, even taking an active roll in suppressing Shiite resistance, blocking their access to deserted Iraqi armories and allowing Iraqi armed helicopters into revolting Shiite villages. US policy was driven by fear of a Shiite rebellion, our fear of an Anti-American Islamic revolution and the desire to retain the territorial integrity of Iraq as a way to control a potential civil war.
The Iraqi Kurds remember the betrayal of the United States as well, when they challenged Saddam Hussein. During the Iraq-Iran war they allied themselves with the Iranian army in attempt to topple Saddam’s regime and claim their independence. That alliance was Saddam’s justification for dropping chemical weapons on Kurdish villages and killing as many as 5000 innocent Kurds. The United States, when George Bush Sr. was President, never actively opposed Saddam’s use of biological weapons. In addition, a campaign was undertaken in which an estimated 100,000 Kurds were “disappeared” and 4000 Kurdish villages destroyed. (M. Bydon) Ironically, these bombings are President George W. Bush’ s evidence for Iraq being identified as an evil nation. However, it is the American position at the time of the bombing that is conveniently forgotten. Saddam’s biological and chemical weapons programs were well known at that time as well as his use of those weapons against Iran. According to Mohamad Bydon, a senior fellow at Near Eastern Studies at Dartmouth College, “After Saddam’s air force used chemical weapons against the Kurds, the United States worked hard to prevent the United Nations Subcommittee on Human Rights from condemning Iraq. The US Administration at the time went on to veto a Congressional resolution urging sanctions against Iraq and even approved $1 billion worth of US foreign aid to Iraq six months after the massacre of the Kurds.”
As I said, Saddam Hussein, at that time, was “our monster.” It was only when he challenged American oil interests that he fell from grace and earned himself a spot on the so-called Axis of Evil.’
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I suspect how ‘liberated’ Iraq may or may not be is hugely dependent on the events to come. Hence Mr. Farrell’s ‘in the end zone doing the dance’ statement.
Yes. The American Military Machine was able to stomp out the Hussein Regime. No real surprise there. What evolves in its place (as well as global repercussions to American and British military action) will determine how truly liberated that country is in the long term.
After all, isn’t that the FINAL test?
Ironically thought, it is the people like us that hate the whining Hollywood elite that are being silenced.
I really believe that I am in a minority. I believe that truth, reason, accountability, and common sense are gone. I believe that the once flourishing free markets an freedom of the United States are going… going… going….
I just feel lucky that I was born early enough in history that I may not have to see the end of America. There are just too many ignorant lefties in control of my life.
“There was a well-orchestrated campaign to do that through hate radio and Web sites and voices that sprang from the (Bush) administration and said ‘take your choice, you’re with us or with the terrorists,”‘ he said.
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I’m a Democrat and am tired of hearing these conspiracy theories of how the Bush administration is behind everything…you’re insulting the American people including Democrats and moderate liberals to think we could not have an independent thought of our own. I simply don’t like or agree with the message you’re sending stamped in the name of all American citizens…your theories are false.
“But the Dixie Chicks are back on the air and their record is number one again,” he said. “Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon (news) are not going to stop making movies for a long time. Janeane Garofalo has a (TV) pilot going forward. These ugly-mouthed people like to think they are more powerful than they are.”
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you sound like the Iraqi information minister Muhammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf …maybe if you say it long enough someone might believe you…good luck because I don’t.
Yes. The American Military Machine was able to stomp out the Hussein Regime. No real surprise there. What evolves in its place (as well as global repercussions to American and British military action) will determine how truly liberated that country is in the long term.
After all, isn’t that the FINAL test?
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The key word here being FINAL, which is why you are speaking prematurely.
In any event, it doesn’t surprise me either that these people won’t admit that they were, or could have been, wrong, and are now playing sour grapes. I’m still waiting for Janeane to crawl to the White House on her knees and admit that she’s sorry as she promised Bill O’Reilly she would, btw.
Which reminds me: is our countdown still on? By this Tuesday we will have waited twenty days for Janeane to apologize, if I recall correctly…
“American Girl” writes:
In any event, it doesn’t surprise me either that these people won’t admit that they were, or could have been, wrong, and are now playing sour grapes.’
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But you see, it has never been a matter or right or ‘wrong’. It’s simply perspective. And there was nothing ‘sour grapish’ about Mike Farrell’s remarks.
I find his commentary fair and unbiased… especially with a statement like; ‘when appropriate and in a manner that’s appropriate’. Where are the ‘sour grapes’ in that pray tell?
TO : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
ISAIAH 54:17
“NO WEAPON FORGED AGAINST YOU WILL PREVAIL
AND YOU WILL REFUTE EVERY TONGUE THAT ACCUSES YOU. THIS IS THE HERITAGE OF THE SERVANTS OF THE LORD, AND THIS IS THEIR VINDICATION FROM ME, ”
DECLARES THE LORD.
About Mike Farrell:
By now, Mike Farrell probably figures he’s got the nation fooled. For over 20 years, the Hollywood actor turned peace activist has flawlessly played the part of the pacifist patriot with America’s best interests at heart. Farrell is quite convincing when he’s in character, as he has been since he propelled himself to the forefront of the Iraq war protest movement. Without batting an eye, Farrell will tell you how much it would pain him to see Iraqi or American blood spilled in the unjust war on Iraq.
Farrell is counting on the fact that no one remembers another part he played one Friday night, 18 years ago in San Salvador. For 2 ½ hours, Farrell, who played a surgeon on M*A*S*H, assisted Dr. Alejandro Sanchez in a real-life operation to restore movement to the arm of Nidia Diaz, a guerilla leader of the Marxist Central American Worker’s Party. Just two months before, the group had claimed responsibility for the slaying of four U.S. Marines, two American businessmen and nine civilians. Diaz is still barred from entering the U.S. for her role in the murders.
Read more about how Farrell aided and abetted the murderer of four U.S Marines at the link below.