What follows is an edited version of a forward
that came my way. I never forward forwards because
they always have a string of e-mail addresses attached
to them. You decide!
Here are some interesting statistics.
These are some rather eye-opening facts: Since the
start of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan,
the sacrifice has been enormous. In the time period
from the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 through now,
we have lost over 3800 military personnel to enemy
action and accidents. As tragic as the loss of any
member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the
following statistics: Here are annual fatalities of
military members while actively serving in the armed
forces from 1980 through 2006:
1980 ...........2,392
1981 ...........2,380
1984 ........1,999
1988 ..........1,819
1989 ..........1,636
1990 .........1,508
1991 ..........1,787
1992 ..........1,293
1993 .........1,213
1994 ..........1,075
1995 ..........2,465
1996 ........2,318 Clinton years @14,000
deaths
1997 .............817
1998 .........2,252
1999 ..........1,984
2000 ..........1,983
2001 ...........890
2002 ..........1,007
2003 ..........1,410
2004 .........1,887
2005 ............919
2006...............920
If you are confused when you look at these
figures...so was I.
Do these figures mean that the loss from the two
latest conflicts in the Middle East are LESS than the
loss of military personnel during Mr. Clinton's
presidency, when America wasn't even involved in a
war? And, I was even more confused when I read that in
1980, during the reign of President (Nobel Peace
Prize) Jimmy Carter, there were 2,392 US military
fatalities!
These figures indicate that many of our Media &
Politicians will pick and choose. They present only
those reporting. Why do so many of them march in
lock-step to twist the truth. Where do so many of them
get their marching-orders for their agenda?
Our Mainstream Print and TV media, and many
politicians like to slant; that these brave men and
women, who are losing their lives in Iraq, are mostly
minorities! Wrong AGAIN--- just one more media lie!
The latest census, of Americans, shows the following
distribution of American citizens, by Race:
European descent (White) ...........69.12%
Hispanic
.....................................12.50%
Black.............................................12.30%
Asian
.............................................3.70%
Native American .............................1.00%
Other
............................................2.60%
Now here are the fatalities by Race; over the past
three years in
Operation Iraqi Freedom:
European descent (white) .......... 74.31%
Hispanic .................................. 10.74%
Black
........................................9.67%
Asian .................................……1.81%
Native American ........................1.09%
Other
........................................0.33%
You do the Math! These figures don't lie... but,
Media-liars figure...and they sway public opinion!
These statistics are published by
Congressional Research Service, and they may be
confirmed by anyone at:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf
Why does most of the newspapers and television
media never address statistics like
these such as those available in this report, and why
do we have to find out this information on the web?
Full Version: Care to Comment?
It comes to presentation of statistics. % of, bell curve and compared to...
I have a friend who is a disabled vet. He professes his disability as if earned in combat by a military do no wrong attitude( die hard Rush Limbaugh listener).
Well he became disabled in service, in USA, On Base, driving home drunk and having a jeep accident.
I am not belittling his disability because his life was altered. I do not belittle his benefits because he had a young wife and children who needed insurance and I was the one who noted his service allowed benefits to his children.
I am belittling how statistics are presented, he would show as active duty disabled in the year he had his accident.
On comparison if older active duty service white men or women die of heart attacks well.... are they included in statistics?
On comparison do not white males stay in army to retirement where minorities leave after service completed.
Like Vietnam who are dying on the front lines, Vietnam it was the poor and minorities due to the draft and George W Bush exceptions and those like him.
Today's war will see more farm boys from small towns and women then ever seen since WWII.
I have a friend who is a disabled vet. He professes his disability as if earned in combat by a military do no wrong attitude( die hard Rush Limbaugh listener).
Well he became disabled in service, in USA, On Base, driving home drunk and having a jeep accident.
I am not belittling his disability because his life was altered. I do not belittle his benefits because he had a young wife and children who needed insurance and I was the one who noted his service allowed benefits to his children.
I am belittling how statistics are presented, he would show as active duty disabled in the year he had his accident.
On comparison if older active duty service white men or women die of heart attacks well.... are they included in statistics?
On comparison do not white males stay in army to retirement where minorities leave after service completed.
Like Vietnam who are dying on the front lines, Vietnam it was the poor and minorities due to the draft and George W Bush exceptions and those like him.
Today's war will see more farm boys from small towns and women then ever seen since WWII.
QUOTE(Snuffysmith @ Dec 8 2007, 01:22 PM) 
1980 ...........2,392
1981 ...........2,380
1984 ........1,999
1988 ..........1,819
1989 ..........1,636
1990 .........1,508
1991 ..........1,787
1992 ..........1,293
1993 .........1,213
1994 ..........1,075
1995 ..........2,465
1996 ........2,318 Clinton years @14,00 deaths
1997 .............817
1998 .........2,252
1999 ..........1,984
2000 ..........1,983
2001 ...........890
2002 ..........1,007
2003 ..........1,410
2004 .........1,887
2005 ............919
2006...............920
1981 ...........2,380
1984 ........1,999
1988 ..........1,819
1989 ..........1,636
1990 .........1,508
1991 ..........1,787
1992 ..........1,293
1993 .........1,213
1994 ..........1,075
1995 ..........2,465
1996 ........2,318 Clinton years @14,00 deaths
1997 .............817
1998 .........2,252
1999 ..........1,984
2000 ..........1,983
2001 ...........890
2002 ..........1,007
2003 ..........1,410
2004 .........1,887
2005 ............919
2006...............920
Why the fixation on battle deaths only? Yup, we're all supposed to be IDIOTS.
QUOTE
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7165869
New Pentagon Numbers Raise Health Care Worries
by Joseph Shapiro
...Bilmes is a professor of public finance at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and was an official in the Clinton administration. She's been looking at historical comparisons.
"The first Gulf War in 1991 was a short war — it only lasted four or five weeks — and there was a relatively low number of injuries and fatalities," she says. "However, we currently spend $4 billion a year for disability for soldiers who fought in that first Gulf War."
New Pentagon Numbers Raise Health Care Worries
by Joseph Shapiro
...Bilmes is a professor of public finance at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and was an official in the Clinton administration. She's been looking at historical comparisons.
"The first Gulf War in 1991 was a short war — it only lasted four or five weeks — and there was a relatively low number of injuries and fatalities," she says. "However, we currently spend $4 billion a year for disability for soldiers who fought in that first Gulf War."
QUOTE
Monday, January 16, 2006
First Gulf War still claims lives
Senator Murray proposes removing time limit for reporting illness
By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Fifteen years ago today, Operation Desert Storm began, first with an air war, then a Feb. 23 allied ground attack that steamrolled across Iraq in four days.
The initial casualties were few. But they continue. They have drawn the attention of members of Congress, and now one Washington senator believes they demand further investigation.
Over the years, raw data from the Veterans Benefits Administration suggest more than 11,000 of the 696,841 veterans who served in the Persian Gulf have died from various injuries and illnesses, and more than 256,000 have filed claims against the government for veterans compensation or medical care.
Though the federal agency cautions that the data are raw and not reflective of mortality rates, "it's significant because it's ... more than the casualty rates post-Vietnam," Skip Dreps said.
A Vietnam veteran, Dreps serves as government relations director for the Northwest chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America service organization.
Gulf War veterans have battled the government over recognition and care for mystifying illnesses, especially neurological disorders linked to exposure to chemical poisons during and after the war.
Brain cancer deaths, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease) and fibromyalgia now are recognized by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments as potentially connected to service during the Persian Gulf War.
In September, the Seattle P-I reported about a number of cases of multiple sclerosis among Gulf War vets. And now Sen. Patty Murray has proposed legislation to have those cases investigated.
Since the disease can take a long time to manifest itself, Murray also has proposed in a bill to remove the seven-year limit veterans have after leaving the service to report the illness and get government help. Removing the limit would apply to those in combat service in the war.
The government's seven-year line in the sand doesn't make sense because veterans "may not come down with it (multiple sclerosis) in seven years, it may be 10 or 15 years," she said.
Murray notes that the VA's "MS Center of Excellence" has said there is "considerable evidence that MS precedes symptoms in most patients."
"Most patients with MS have several lesions (shown on an) MRI at the time of their first symptom," she said.
"It's a very difficult and debilitating disease and is often not diagnosed early -- and I know personally because my dad had MS," Murray said recently.
Murray, a member of the Veterans Committee, said she will begin soliciting support for her bill when Congress goes back into session Wednesday.
While there are no official numbers of Gulf War veterans with MS, the 500 veterans who signed onto a support group at MSVets@Yahoogroups.com, general government figures and anecdotal information from others merit study, she said.
"It seems to me that the numbers are high enough and the scientific evidence is enough that we should err on the side of the veterans in this," Murray said.
Julie Mock, 38, of Woodinville, a Gulf War veteran with MS, calls Murray's support "a godsend. It validates what we've been saying."
Mock is president of the non-profit National Gulf War Resource Center and an advocate for fellow veterans.
Of the estimated 11,000 Gulf War veterans who have died since 1991, more than 2,700 served within the Il Khamisiyah area of Iraq.
Sarin nerve gas was released into the air there after U.S. forces destroyed Iraqi munitions in March 1991. More than 145,000 U.S. troops, a smaller number of allied troops and unknown numbers of Iraqis and others were exposed in the resulting widespread plume.
Mock was one of them.
"It's disturbing," she says of the death statistics from all causes. "I have to say I often wonder whose funeral I'm going to go to.
"Every time you hear about somebody dying, you hear that they were too young to die, or chronically ill and were stabilized that way for a while and then died quickly. And they are a variety of ages."
MS involves an attack upon the central nervous system. Myelin, the protective covering around nerves, is destroyed. Scar tissue called sclerosis remains, resulting in a diverse range of painful, debilitating and baffling symptoms ranging from fatigue to numbness or blindness.
The problem is determining when MS stems from environmental or other sources.
Illnesses among Gulf War veterans have been studied and debated for the past 15 years, at first as "Gulf War Syndrome." Studies have been conducted in allied countries that had fewer troops than the United States, including Britain, Canada and New Zealand.
Here, Congress created the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses in 1998. First appointed by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi in January 2002, its mission is to make recommendations concerning government research relating to the health consequences of military service in Southwest Asia during the Persian Gulf War.
In November, veterans testified at an oversight hearing chaired by U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., to discuss whether the VA was fulfilling its legal mandate to make determinations about Gulf War illnesses.
As the veterans arrived in D.C. spoiling to have their say, however, the VA announced it was funding 12 new research projects to better understand Gulf War illnesses.
A month later, the government announced that $15 million a year for five years was being earmarked in the 2006 budget for specific research into Gulf War illnesses.
Dreps said he and other veterans representatives are angry, feeling the announcements were politically rather than scientifically inspired to blunt veterans' critical testimony.
"While "something good may come from the research projects," Dreps said, "shame on us" as a nation for allowing Gulf War veterans to be treated so for 15 years.
"Shame on us," he said.
QUOTE
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/8685
STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR LINDA J. BILMES
KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITEE ON THE BUDGET
October 24, 2007
STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR LINDA J. BILMES
KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITEE ON THE BUDGET
October 24, 2007
QUOTE
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/6/hidde...f_war_long_term
February 6, 2007
Hidden Costs of War: Long-Term Price of Providing Veterans Medical Care Could Reach $660 Billion
A new study from Harvard University reports that the hidden financial costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan will overwhelm the Department of Veterans Affairs for decades. The study, titled “Soldiers Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan: The long-term costs of providing veterans medical care and disability benefits,” finds that the Veterans Administration is both under-funded and under-equipped to deal with the current and future costs of veterans’ health care.
The study estimates that since the Global War on Terror began, 16 US soldiers have been wounded per fatality, a casualty rate that exceeds the rate of previous wars. Over 200,000 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated at VA medical facilities thus far, with 900,000 still deployed on active duty. The study predicts that the cost of medical care and compensation benefits for returning veterans will skyrocket once those troops return home. It also estimates that the cost over the soldiers lives will amount to up to seven hundred billion dollars.
The author of this study, Professor Linda Bilmes, joins me now from Boston. Professor Bilmes is former Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, and a Lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Welcome to Democracy Now
February 6, 2007
Hidden Costs of War: Long-Term Price of Providing Veterans Medical Care Could Reach $660 Billion
A new study from Harvard University reports that the hidden financial costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan will overwhelm the Department of Veterans Affairs for decades. The study, titled “Soldiers Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan: The long-term costs of providing veterans medical care and disability benefits,” finds that the Veterans Administration is both under-funded and under-equipped to deal with the current and future costs of veterans’ health care.
The study estimates that since the Global War on Terror began, 16 US soldiers have been wounded per fatality, a casualty rate that exceeds the rate of previous wars. Over 200,000 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated at VA medical facilities thus far, with 900,000 still deployed on active duty. The study predicts that the cost of medical care and compensation benefits for returning veterans will skyrocket once those troops return home. It also estimates that the cost over the soldiers lives will amount to up to seven hundred billion dollars.
The author of this study, Professor Linda Bilmes, joins me now from Boston. Professor Bilmes is former Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, and a Lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Welcome to Democracy Now
QUOTE
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2007/...s-medical-care/
...“Look at the latest official toll of US fatalities and wounded in the media, and you will see something like 3,160 dead and 23,785 wounded (that “includes 13,250 personnel who returned to duty within 72 hours”, the Washington Post told us helpfully on 4 March). From this, you might assume that only 11,000 or so troops, in effect, have been wounded in Iraq. But Bilmes discovered that the Bush administration was keeping two separate sets of statistics of those wounded: one (like the above) issued by the Pentagon and therefore used by the media, and the other by the Department of Veterans Affairs — a government department autonomous from the Pentagon. At the beginning of this year, the Pentagon was putting out a figure of roughly 23,000 wounded, but the VA was quietly saying that more than 50,000 had, in fact, been wounded.”
“To draw attention to her academic findings, Bilmes wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Times of 5 January 2007 in which she quoted the figure of “more than 50,000 wounded Iraq war soldiers”. The reaction from the Pentagon was fury. An assistant secretary there named Dr William Winkenwerder phoned her personally to complain. Bilmes recalls: “He said, ‘Where did you get those numbers from?’” She explained to Winkenwerder that the 50,000 figure came from the VA, and faxed him copies of official US government documents that proved her point. Winkenwerder backed down.”
“Following Bilmes’s exchange with Winkenwerder — on 10 January, to be precise — the number of wounded listed on the VA website dropped from 50,508 to 21,649. The Bush administration had, once again, turned reality on its head to concur with its claims. “The whole thing is scary,” Bilmes says. “I have never been conspiracy-minded, but watching them change the numbers on the website — it’s extraordinary.”
“What Bilmes had discovered was that the tally of US fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan included the outcome of “non-hostile actions”, most commonly vehicle accidents. But the Pentagon’s statistics of the wounded did not. Even troops incapacitated for life in Iraq or Afghanistan — but not in “hostile situations” - were not being counted, although they will require exactly the same kind of medical care back home as soldiers similarly wounded in battle. Bilmes and Stiglitz had set out, meantime, to explore the ratio of wounded to deaths in previous American wars. They found that in the First World War, on average 1.8 were wounded for every fatality; in the Second World War, 1.6; in Korea, 2.8; in Vietnam, 2.6; and, in the first Gulf war in 1991, 1.2. In this war, 21st-century medical care and better armour have inflated the numbers of the wounded-but-living, leading Bilmes to an astounding conclusion: for every soldier dying in Iraq or Afghanistan today, 16 are being wounded. The Pentagon insists the figure is nearer nine — but, either way, the economic implications for the future are phenomenal.”
...“Look at the latest official toll of US fatalities and wounded in the media, and you will see something like 3,160 dead and 23,785 wounded (that “includes 13,250 personnel who returned to duty within 72 hours”, the Washington Post told us helpfully on 4 March). From this, you might assume that only 11,000 or so troops, in effect, have been wounded in Iraq. But Bilmes discovered that the Bush administration was keeping two separate sets of statistics of those wounded: one (like the above) issued by the Pentagon and therefore used by the media, and the other by the Department of Veterans Affairs — a government department autonomous from the Pentagon. At the beginning of this year, the Pentagon was putting out a figure of roughly 23,000 wounded, but the VA was quietly saying that more than 50,000 had, in fact, been wounded.”
“To draw attention to her academic findings, Bilmes wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Times of 5 January 2007 in which she quoted the figure of “more than 50,000 wounded Iraq war soldiers”. The reaction from the Pentagon was fury. An assistant secretary there named Dr William Winkenwerder phoned her personally to complain. Bilmes recalls: “He said, ‘Where did you get those numbers from?’” She explained to Winkenwerder that the 50,000 figure came from the VA, and faxed him copies of official US government documents that proved her point. Winkenwerder backed down.”
“Following Bilmes’s exchange with Winkenwerder — on 10 January, to be precise — the number of wounded listed on the VA website dropped from 50,508 to 21,649. The Bush administration had, once again, turned reality on its head to concur with its claims. “The whole thing is scary,” Bilmes says. “I have never been conspiracy-minded, but watching them change the numbers on the website — it’s extraordinary.”
“What Bilmes had discovered was that the tally of US fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan included the outcome of “non-hostile actions”, most commonly vehicle accidents. But the Pentagon’s statistics of the wounded did not. Even troops incapacitated for life in Iraq or Afghanistan — but not in “hostile situations” - were not being counted, although they will require exactly the same kind of medical care back home as soldiers similarly wounded in battle. Bilmes and Stiglitz had set out, meantime, to explore the ratio of wounded to deaths in previous American wars. They found that in the First World War, on average 1.8 were wounded for every fatality; in the Second World War, 1.6; in Korea, 2.8; in Vietnam, 2.6; and, in the first Gulf war in 1991, 1.2. In this war, 21st-century medical care and better armour have inflated the numbers of the wounded-but-living, leading Bilmes to an astounding conclusion: for every soldier dying in Iraq or Afghanistan today, 16 are being wounded. The Pentagon insists the figure is nearer nine — but, either way, the economic implications for the future are phenomenal.”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2fBj2wsimvQ
But I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
Hard drives FUBAR recently and all files lost...
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=214
What Military Families Think of the Bush Administration
by: Brandon Friedman
Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 01:20:21 AM EST
QUOTE(veritas @ Dec 12 2007, 07:53 PM)
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/8685
STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR LINDA J. BILMES
KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITEE ON THE BUDGET
October 24, 2007
STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR LINDA J. BILMES
KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITEE ON THE BUDGET
October 24, 2007
Sorry, the link worked yesterday. Here's another transcript in PDF format
http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~lbilmes/paper/...mony-budget.doc
This link is from
http://vets4politics.blogspot.com/2007/11/...aks-out-on.html
When a link breaks, I always read extra carefully. Here's the article I intended to post yesterday after checking a thread hadn't already been started. It will make you cry before it makes you angry. Ignore the garbage title.
http://www.militarytimes.com/projects/flash/bloodbrothers/
original link http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...ess=132x3824746
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/bloodbrothers3/
QUOTE(veritas @ Dec 13 2007, 08:24 AM)
Ignore the garbage title.
Refers to this, not the series overview title (Blood Brothers) -
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/bloodbrothers3/
‘Not us. We’re not going.’
Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’ that pulls the unit apart
Stories by KELLY KENNEDY - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Dec 8, 2007 14:32:57 EST
Here's story that was sent tome yesterday, I guess it'll make a good comment
Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.
Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, 'Where are you guys from?'
I told him that we were from Wisconsin 'Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.'
(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who had passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)
'My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called ' Flags of Our Fathers' which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.
'Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called 'War.' But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old - and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families about it.
(He pointed to the statue) 'You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a phot ograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. It was just boys who won the battle of Iwo Jima Boys. Not old men.
'The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the 'old man' because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'
'The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes; a Pima Indian from Arizona Ira Hayes was one who walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So yo u take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 (ten years after this picture was taken).
'The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night.' Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's fa rm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. Those neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
'The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada Usually; he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.
'You see, like Ira Hayes, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsi n was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed, without any medication or help with the pain.
'When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'
'So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time.'
Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons mo st people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.
We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice.
Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom.
Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world.
STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.
God Bless You and God Bless America
REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.
One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is that if you look at the statue very closely and count the number of 'hands' raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.
Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.
Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, 'Where are you guys from?'
I told him that we were from Wisconsin 'Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.'
(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who had passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)
'My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called ' Flags of Our Fathers' which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.
'Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called 'War.' But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old - and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families about it.
(He pointed to the statue) 'You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a phot ograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. It was just boys who won the battle of Iwo Jima Boys. Not old men.
'The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the 'old man' because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'
'The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes; a Pima Indian from Arizona Ira Hayes was one who walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So yo u take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 (ten years after this picture was taken).
'The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night.' Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's fa rm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. Those neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
'The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada Usually; he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.
'You see, like Ira Hayes, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsi n was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed, without any medication or help with the pain.
'When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'
'So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time.'
Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons mo st people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.
We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice.
Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom.
Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world.
STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.
God Bless You and God Bless America
REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.
One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is that if you look at the statue very closely and count the number of 'hands' raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.
QUOTE(Marine @ Dec 15 2007, 02:53 PM)
Here's story that was sent tome yesterday, I guess it'll make a good comment
Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.
Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, 'Where are you guys from?'
I told him that we were from Wisconsin 'Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.'
(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who had passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)
'My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called ' Flags of Our Fathers' which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.
'Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called 'War.' But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old - and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families about it.
(He pointed to the statue) 'You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a phot ograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. It was just boys who won the battle of Iwo Jima Boys. Not old men.
'The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the 'old man' because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'
'The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes; a Pima Indian from Arizona Ira Hayes was one who walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So yo u take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 (ten years after this picture was taken).
'The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night.' Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's fa rm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. Those neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
'The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada Usually; he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.
'You see, like Ira Hayes, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsi n was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed, without any medication or help with the pain.
'When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'
'So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time.'
Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.
Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, 'Where are you guys from?'
I told him that we were from Wisconsin 'Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.'
(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who had passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)
'My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called ' Flags of Our Fathers' which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.
'Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called 'War.' But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old - and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families about it.
(He pointed to the statue) 'You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a phot ograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. It was just boys who won the battle of Iwo Jima Boys. Not old men.
'The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the 'old man' because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'
'The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes; a Pima Indian from Arizona Ira Hayes was one who walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So yo u take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 (ten years after this picture was taken).
'The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night.' Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's fa rm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. Those neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
'The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada Usually; he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.
'You see, like Ira Hayes, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsi n was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed, without any medication or help with the pain.
'When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'
'So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time.'
The following part did not come from James Bradley. I'd be interested in knowing his reaction to the editorializing and what he thinks his father might have expressed.
Perhaps the purpose of his honesty was to inform these children about war to guide them toward different conclusions.
QUOTE
Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons mo st people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.
We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice.
Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom.
Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world.
STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.
God Bless You and God Bless America
REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.
One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is that if you look at the statue very closely and count the number of 'hands' raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.
We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice.
Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom.
Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world.
STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.
God Bless You and God Bless America
REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.
One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is that if you look at the statue very closely and count the number of 'hands' raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.
Imperfect, but BRILLIANT. To me, 'lambs' is a diss for politicians (like Cruise's character), 'lions' refers to combat soldiers.
QUOTE
http://ppl.nhmccd.edu/~garyb/reviews/lionsforlambs.htm
Redford takes on war in the penetrating ‘Lions for Lambs’
Three out of four stars (Rated R for some war violence and profanity) Running time: 92 minutes. Reviewed at Cinemark Market Street, November 9.
A quick glance at the Villager features the front-page story of yet another local area young man killed in Iraq. Turning on the computer early in the morning, the Yahoo headline story reads, “NATO and Afghan soldiers killed in ambush.”
This comes a day after watching “Lions for Lambs,” the new movie directed by Robert Redford that has not reviewed well. “Disjointed” and “too talky” seems to be the verdict. I disagree.
Presented in three parts, the story opens in the office of Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), sitting down for an interview with a veteran TV journalist named Janine Roth (Meryl Streep). The senator is about to disclose a new military plan in Afghanistan—American Special Forces will be placed in the snowy mountains to get a bird’s eye view of insurgents trekking over from Iran.
“When does this strategy start?” the skeptical reporter asks. “Ten minutes ago” is the senator’s reply.
Cut quickly to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. We meet two Army Rangers named Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Pena) and Arian Finch (Derek Luke), former college classmates of similar disadvantaged backgrounds who enlisted together with a sense of idealism to face the evils of the world head on. They are part of the military operation to which the senator referred. When the Chinook they are riding on takes enemy fire, they end up stranded on a cold, snowy bluff surrounded by Taliban fighters. Both are injured and they carry only a limited amount of ammunition.
Then it’s onto “a California university” where Professor Steven Malley (Robert Redford) is in his office to meet with a student named Andrew Garfield (Todd Hayes). Malley recognizes Garfield as a bright bulb but a total slacker; the young man has the audacity to cut the professor’s classes. The professor hates to see the potential wasted and brings up the memory of two of his former students named Rodriguez and Finch who enlisted in the Army. Oh, you mean the two unfortunates stranded on the mountain in Afghanistan?
In a script written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (“The Kingdom”), the action jockeys back and forth between the three scenarios at a dizzying pace. The dialogue between the senator and reporter and the professor and student is just talk. But it is intelligent talk, largely centering on what I believe to be Redford’s underlying theme, which is “Sound general quarters, America.” This is not an anti-war film; to the contrary, most points of view about our contemporary role in the world are effectively presented.
True, much the same ideas about American foreign policy are discussed on cable TV and in staged political “debates” between presidential candidates. But in this case Redford effectively ratchets up the tension by returning to Afghanistan as the two soldiers take on enemy fire. While politicians and academicians have the luxury of endless talk, soldiers fight. Malley likens these heroes with British soldiers and their witless, behind the lines officers in World War I: “lions for lambs.”
At the end, Ron and Mary Nelson of The Woodlands began a conversation with me about the film that continued for a half hour afterward in the lobby. The Nelsons couldn’t understand the mostly negative reviews “Lions for Lambs” has received to date. The three of us parted in agreement—this is a good film about a rather complex subject. Score one for Robert Redford.
Redford takes on war in the penetrating ‘Lions for Lambs’
Three out of four stars (Rated R for some war violence and profanity) Running time: 92 minutes. Reviewed at Cinemark Market Street, November 9.
A quick glance at the Villager features the front-page story of yet another local area young man killed in Iraq. Turning on the computer early in the morning, the Yahoo headline story reads, “NATO and Afghan soldiers killed in ambush.”
This comes a day after watching “Lions for Lambs,” the new movie directed by Robert Redford that has not reviewed well. “Disjointed” and “too talky” seems to be the verdict. I disagree.
Presented in three parts, the story opens in the office of Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), sitting down for an interview with a veteran TV journalist named Janine Roth (Meryl Streep). The senator is about to disclose a new military plan in Afghanistan—American Special Forces will be placed in the snowy mountains to get a bird’s eye view of insurgents trekking over from Iran.
“When does this strategy start?” the skeptical reporter asks. “Ten minutes ago” is the senator’s reply.
Cut quickly to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. We meet two Army Rangers named Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Pena) and Arian Finch (Derek Luke), former college classmates of similar disadvantaged backgrounds who enlisted together with a sense of idealism to face the evils of the world head on. They are part of the military operation to which the senator referred. When the Chinook they are riding on takes enemy fire, they end up stranded on a cold, snowy bluff surrounded by Taliban fighters. Both are injured and they carry only a limited amount of ammunition.
Then it’s onto “a California university” where Professor Steven Malley (Robert Redford) is in his office to meet with a student named Andrew Garfield (Todd Hayes). Malley recognizes Garfield as a bright bulb but a total slacker; the young man has the audacity to cut the professor’s classes. The professor hates to see the potential wasted and brings up the memory of two of his former students named Rodriguez and Finch who enlisted in the Army. Oh, you mean the two unfortunates stranded on the mountain in Afghanistan?
In a script written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (“The Kingdom”), the action jockeys back and forth between the three scenarios at a dizzying pace. The dialogue between the senator and reporter and the professor and student is just talk. But it is intelligent talk, largely centering on what I believe to be Redford’s underlying theme, which is “Sound general quarters, America.” This is not an anti-war film; to the contrary, most points of view about our contemporary role in the world are effectively presented.
True, much the same ideas about American foreign policy are discussed on cable TV and in staged political “debates” between presidential candidates. But in this case Redford effectively ratchets up the tension by returning to Afghanistan as the two soldiers take on enemy fire. While politicians and academicians have the luxury of endless talk, soldiers fight. Malley likens these heroes with British soldiers and their witless, behind the lines officers in World War I: “lions for lambs.”
At the end, Ron and Mary Nelson of The Woodlands began a conversation with me about the film that continued for a half hour afterward in the lobby. The Nelsons couldn’t understand the mostly negative reviews “Lions for Lambs” has received to date. The three of us parted in agreement—this is a good film about a rather complex subject. Score one for Robert Redford.
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