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I defy you to get through this program without crying. Even Heather’s great mashup of the show had tears streaming down my face. On this week’s Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers spoke with Phil Donohue and Ellen Spiro about their new documentary feature Body of War, focusing on paralyzed Iraq vet Tomas Young.
DONAHUE: My inspiration for this film was the naked child running from the napalm. Remember that Vietnam picture? I mean, terrified, this little girl is totally naked. You can see the black smoke in the back. That picture won a Pulitzer Prize. See the pain. Don’t sanitize the war.
If you’re gonna send young men and women to fight for this nation, tell the truth. That’s one of the biggest reasons for the First Amendment. And we haven’t been. And so I thought I will tell the story, the real story of the harm in harm’s way.
You definitely see the pain and the truth while watching Tomas and his family cope with his injuries and try to find a way to give Tomas as much dignity and life as he can. I cannot speak highly enough of this little microcosm of tangible reality for a war made purposefully abstract so that we remain apathetic to it. You can watch the full episode at PBS.com and order the soundtrack, featuring music by Eddie Vedder here.
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Good to see Donahue back in the game.
no tears for me, just a firmer resolve to end the war.
tomas’ brother is on active duty.
Truly tragic.
My eyes welled up. I will watch the rest of it now.
Bush: Afghaninstan war is ROMANTIC
http://sabbah.biz/ mt/ archives/ 2008/ 03/ 15/ bush-afghaninstan-war-is-romantic/
President Bush spoke of his dream to work on the frontline in Afghanistan during a video conference with US military and civilian personnel in the war-torn country. “I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. “It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” President Bush said.
Enough said.
I feel so sad and angry for that young man. God Damn this Administration.
I saw this episode of Moyers’ Journal. Touching stuff. Nice to see an honest and truthful portrait of Busholini’s folly and what it has done to thousands upon thousands of families. Too bad the majority of the sheeple won’t even hear about the movie “Body of War”.
This is what happens when chickenhawks rule the roost.
And now Commander Bunnypants — the drunken AWOL frat boy — has killed his 4,000th U.S. soldier.
Oh, to see him swinging from a lamppost …
Thank you. It’s the best reminder of why we fight for the soul of this country. John McCain is simply not acceptable.
Crap, I got something in my eyes.
The sad thing is McCain is the one seen as “tough”. There is such a disconnect in this country. I just am befuddled that so many people want to go down the same road again and again. What is the definiton of insanity?
CoIntelPro against the WAR of LIES @ 2:
I am in agreement with you 100%. I am going to make it a personal mission to see this film. This needs to be shown everywhere to give everyone a hard hitting slap in the face. The thing that pisses me off the most is watching Bush at that dinner giving his “were are the WMD” joke and then watching that soldier sitting there in a wheelchair watching the same thing. I can only imagine what was going though his mind at the time but I bet it wasn’t pretty.
B R E A K I N G !
Letter calls official Spitzer story into question / GOP operative wrote investigators in November (ROGER STONE - In the 1970s, he was on the payroll of Richard Nixon’s now-infamous Committee to Reelect the President. In the 1980s, he helped George Bush Sr. trounce Michael Dukakis by floating a racially charged ad about the Democratic governor’s role in furloughing a black inmate. And in 2000, he organized the so-called “Brooks Brothers” riot, forcing the shutdown of a recount in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that may have turned the election to George W. Bush.)
“Republican political operative Roger Stone, Eliot Spitzer’s longtime antagonist, predicted his political demise more than three months in advance,” Novak wrote. “Spitzer’s entrapment by federal authorities investigating a prostitution ring raised speculation that Stone, with a 40-year record as a political hit man, somehow was behind it.”
RAW STORY
Published: Monday March 24, 2008
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/....._0324.html
Chimpy, the deserter, who thinks that war is romantic.
There is a special place in hell for such as he.
Phil Donahue’s recollection of that little Vietnamese girl running down a street covered with napalm was also one of the pivotal scenes in the heart wrenching 1974 film Hearts and Minds, which won the Oscar for best documentary, much to the consternation of war hawks such as Bob Hope, John Wayne, and Frank Sinatra. Donahue is certainly right about how this occupation is covered, since most news stations throughout the country devote less than five minutes to the casualties that are taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. More soldiers will continue to fill the beds of Walter Reed and VA hospitals across this country as long as the United States continues to unnecessarily place its soldiers in harm’s way. The only way to prevent this from happening is to bring them home-alive and in one piece-now.
I began my day seeing clips of this on c-span. I believe the show is called Afterwords and it’s hosted by Brian Lamb. He had Phil as his guest and they were showing clips and discussing the making of the movie. I was crying before I was fully awake. And this is just one story of one soldier, I wonder how many more there are out there that may be even sadder and even worse. God, what a awful criminal shame.
Could cheney watch this show and then just say “So?”. Sadly, I imagine he could.
That ‘naked child’ running from the napalm lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
…what is it going to take for Americans to rise up against their so-called government?
This Canadian weeps for your country.
Will we see Phil on Meet the Press talking about this film? Will Tim and Chris Matthews and all the rest invite him on their shows? I wish they would, but I doubt they will.
To make a bad story worse, Ollie North on Faux News said the photo was used for “anti-American propaganda.”
FATSinTHEfire @ 15:
Damnit, misplaced my comment.
And there’s a similar piece in Harper’s. Stone is a stone-cold scumbag, rat bastard, political hitman.
This post brings brings up an off topic piece I saw last night on CNN with Rick Sanchez when the 4000 th death was reported.
C&L, you gotta get this video up there for two reasons, one to show the absurdity of the over weight lady winger slamming Ware and Ware’s clear and concise summary of where we actually are at in the serge.
Sanchez is a buffoon but Ware cut right to the chase and laid out all the facts as to whats happening on the ground. This guy’s been in the dirt, muck, and heat since this wars started with little break if any at all.
Then…this right wing talk show radio host had the utter gall to say Ware is wrong because she has been there “twice” and everything is going great. She actually used the “what about Anbar” line which Ware tore to shreds. How Ware held it together with telling this woman to foulke off was beyond me. It was the most disrespectful spin and utter vile I’ve ever seen a wing nut spew to a person who’s seen the living hell going on daily.
I don’t know if anyone caught it but they had a double screen shot and she was actually smirking at Ware when he was describing conditions on the ground. It was stunning.
Hannah Hussein @ 16:
And there’s another sad fact.
That the miserable, evil bastards who caused all this misery, death and horror will not suffer so much as a night of missed sleep while the world burns and entire villages die and injured soldiers are discarded like yesterday’s newspaper.
That all we can do is hope that maybe in some far distant future, in a made up religious “hell” they will finally be given their just desserts. Because real justice is dead and it’s sickening to realize they’ll all just walk away from it wealthier and self satisfied.
Bush and Cheney are war criminals, plain and simple.
and they’re going to get away with it from what it seems.
America used to be great, now we’re a sad old joke of a democracy.
impeach, then prosecute - THAT IS THE ONLY SOLUTION.
The following quote should be used to describe the Republican party, the right wingers that support them, and especially those at that dinner party in the film.
War spares not the brave but the cowardly - Anacreon
While such stories will motivate some to end this war, I already can imagine the suffering. That’s why I protested against the war BEFORE the Bush regime launched it.
What will really end it is a taxpayer revolt. That’s right: greed. The one thing republicons hate to do is pay taxes, and right now 12 billion of our tax dollars are going up in flames every month. And by the way, those dollars, not spent on education or health care or infrastructure here do translate in an indirect way to death and suffering of civilian Americans. (For instance, when that bridge that has been neglected collapses and kills motorists.)
So my bumpersticker reads:
PAY YOU TAXES
ENDLESS WAR AIN”T CHEAP
Sadly, greed and self insterest will end this war a lot faster than sympathy for our troops, who are ignored by the media anyway.
Great Memorial Picture Here
Whoever did that is AMAZING!!!!
Ron @ 5:
And now I sobbed.
ms canada @ 19:
The lack of fear to be arrested,
jailed,
imprisoned,
inconvenienced,
uncomfortable,
cold,
hungry,
wounded,
unwashed,
without T.V.,
without running water,
without Box Stores,
without junk food,
without food,
without money,
and finally The American People need to be not in denial , but in affirmation that it is up to them to make it right.
I still wonder how Bush had the chutzpah to make that cute little film where he’s “looking for WMD” in the Oval Office for a few cheap laughs.
Oh yeah, he doesn’t give a fuck.
Someone should slam the butts of Bush and his prowar cronies including “Darth” into chairs, tie them down, tape their eyes open, and push TV sets in front of their faces so they couldn’t look away and force them to watch what Donohue has created. And then bring into the room the parents, and loved ones, including the now fatherless or motherless children and let them have at these low-life scum who think dying in Iraq or Afganistan is “romantic.” Pelosi should be made to sit through it as well. Then let’s see if she still doesn’t want to impeach this bunch.
I made a point of watching Body of War this weekend. The scene that most struck was that of Tomas in his weelchair in a ward, watching Bush pontificate on TV, and the fact that it was years ago even though he says the same things today.
Also, the extraordinary injury of not being able to naturally regulate his body temperature! For all his injuriies that seems an extraoridnarily debilitating one.
AND the excahnge between Tomas and the Vietnam vet, regarding rehabilitation. The Viet vet spen a year in hospital and 6 mopnths out-patient, Tomas, with more sever problems was given the boot in about three months!
How often do we see the wounded on the networks? When there’s some feel good spin at hand, like advances in prosthetics, or Bush or some other minion ’sharing their pain’. Its nauseating.
Is it possible that PBS has actually escaped the clutches of the Republican media machine? Hallelujah. How many markets did this film make it to–that’s a good question.
Dr. Acula @ 22:
That’s TWO Democratic Governors destroyed by the Justice Department Republican Hit Squad!
Is THAT kind of thing the reason why “Impeachment is off the table”?????????
The pResident has no scheduled comments about the war this Monday.
Donaldd @ 6:
Arrrrrgggghhhh………The only people who think war is “romantic” are the people who haven’t smelled a burnt corpse, who haven’t watched the life blood spurting out of multiple arterial wounds as an 18 yr old dies in agony, who haven’t watched the explosion as their buddy takes a round to the head and they get covered with bits of grey matter and skull fragments as the blood gushes out of their friends carotid arteries. Don’t even get me started on the horror of seeing the maimed infants, children, old men and women, you know the “collateral damage” aspect of the “romantic” war.
Not nearly enough said.
He’s busy today
http://tinyurl.com/39ho3n
Laura @ 35:
The problem is, they havn’t completely escaped. There are many stories and documentaries that don’t get seen.
What a sobering look at the realities of war.
1 hour, 19 minutes ago
The top US general in Iraq says he has evidence Iran was behind Sunday’s attack on Baghdad’s Green Zone.
I watched this Friday night, and it’s pretty wrenching.
L.A. Confidential @ 42:
Would that be Petraeus. He must have gotten the memo from Cheney.
Ron @ 44:
Yes it was Petraeus.
L.A. Confidential @ 45:
So, he must have gotten the forensic experts in there right away to process the evidence and come to this amazing result.
Ron @ 44:
The Chickenhawks are determined to start another war for us to pay for, for them to reap the profits and for somebody else’s kids to fight before they leave office.
Impeach
Indict
Imprison
Ron @ 46:
It’s all part of the script.
Ron @ 46: