Christina’s Common Sense

If you’re an avid reader of this blog, or if you know me personally, you can probably tell that military stuff is very important to me. So when I first saw the trailer for Stop-Loss over Christmas break, I immediately knew I was going to despise it. Not only did I have suspicions about its political leanings, I also hate MTV and Kimberly Peirce. However, because it’s important to know what the enemy is thinking, I forced myself to watch it last night.

I tried to keep an open mind. Since I like military movies, I wanted to like Stop-Loss. And as much as I love those who protect my freedom, it’s the truth that sometimes the brass makes mistakes and the GIs suffer. Maybe this movie would help bring awareness to something that needs to be changed.

And it started out pretty well, with soldiers singing Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue,” which is one of the most-played songs on my iPod (shocker, I know). And then it all went to you-know-where.

Political statements aside, Stop-Loss wasn’t a good movie. It just wasn’t. It lost my interest after the homecoming parade and never got it back. I have to say, Ryan Phillippe showcased some pretty significant acting talent in his 180 from Navy Cross recipient John Bradley to simpering deserter Brandon King. It was particularly amusing that he spent most of the movie running from the Army in a pair of BDU pants and a green T-shirt. Not conspicuous at all…

Stop-Loss also makes its main characters into some of the most unlikable characters ever to appear on the silver screen. They look like weak, manipulated wimps. It really should be pathetically easy to drum up sympathy for a PTSD-stricken soldier, yet Stop-Loss managed to render me completely uncaring toward King’s struggle.

The movie’s worst offense is taking the soldiers running from their duty and making them look like heroes. The ones who follow orders look like villains. The only thing that kept me from destroying the screen in front of me was that it happened to be my computer screen and I’m not ready to part with it yet (though it would give me an excuse to buy the Panasonic Toughbook I’ve been lusting after).

So yes, Stop-Loss was a terrible movie and a terrible disservice to America’s heroes. After the movie was over, I ran a Google search for Kimberly Peirce and discovered that she got the idea for the movie when her brother joined the Army after 9/11.

He must be so proud.

In today’s world, everyone wants to be a victim. It’s the cool thing to do, especially if you’re gay, black, or a woman. If you’re all three, it’s even cooler. But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about history becoming subordinate to victimology.

Spike Lee (black guy, film director, victim extraordinaire, and Yankees fan to add insult to injury), has recently taken issue with Clint Eastwood (white guy, film director, and conservative) for not putting any black guys in his 2006 blockbusters Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.

Lee might have a legitimate case had there been black guys on Iwo Jima. Having spent most of the spring semester researching this epic battle, I can attest that I did not run across a single book, chapter, paragraph, sentence, or footnote addressing black Marines on the island. The military was segregated in 1945, so to have blacks and whites fighting alongside each other would have been a big fat deal. Would nobody have written about it? Would those books nobody has written not be unbelievably famous? They would, because back then it would have been unprecedented. The lack of documentation is, to my mind, proof that no black men fought in this battle. That’s not racism. It’s just the truth (which, of course, is racism these days).

If you think that’s laughable, let’s address Lee’s beef with Letters from Iwo Jima, which recounts Iwo from the Japanese’s end. Do I really need to say anything here? The Japanese are the most homogeneous population on the face of the earth. What does Spike Lee want to do, dress a bunch of Kobe Bryant lookalikes in Imperial Japanese battle garb and try to pass them off as authentic Japanese men?

What’s next? Should we alter the famous photograph (over this Marine lover’s dead body) to show a few women raising the flag? Let’s Photoshop a ponytail onto Harlon Block’s head! That’ll make the professional victims happy! Hey, how about a Japanese guy jumping out of his bunker to help the Americans stick the flag on Mt. Suribachi? Then we can be really fair to everyone.

Spike Lee is revealing himself and those who agree with him to be horses’ derrieres. However, he may shut up and retreat back to his millions of dollars soon enough—the Italic Institute of America has accused him of being anti-Italian.

If I were smart, I wouldn’t have blogged about Iraq two days ago because I would have known that tonight marks five years into the deal. But I’m apparently not smart, so you get two Iraq posts in three days.

Tonight will mark five years since I sat on the floor of my living room watching the first bombs drop on Baghdad and watching to a Fox News anchor report over a video phone.

A lot has changed since then, most of which would be included in this post had I not written about it a mere 48 hours ago. But many things remain the same.

One of these things is the anti-war movement, just as strident today as it was five years ago—or 40 years ago, for that matter. While America’s best have been doing us proud in the Middle East, we’ve had such gems as Fahrenheit 9/11 from the erstwhile Michael Moore, with Fahrenheit 9/11 ½ anticipated later this year. Well-known liberal loon Mike Farrell has put to use all that foreign policy experience he gained playing BJ Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H in a documentary Whose War? Cindy Sheehan has crashed the State of the Union and camped out by Camp David. Stop-Loss, a movie where soldiers desert the Army and don’t get a firing squad is set for release in just a few days.

We should always support our troops, but today is an especially important day to do so. Remember them in your thoughts and prayers, and do everything you can to make sure they know the likes of Michael Moore, Mike Farrell, and Cindy Sheehan don’t speak for America.