>> ^Farhad2000:
This is one of the best war films released in recent years. Because it separates the politics away from the people fighting the war.


Isn't that what all good war films do? I agree with you, but I'm trying to think of a good war film that didn't separate the politics from the lives of individuals. "The horrors of war and the duality of man", right? (Stole that from the Platoon imdb page. )

The only ones that don't do that, to my immediate knowledge, are propaganda films like The Alamo (2004) and most of John Wayne's war films. (Love his cowboy movies, though.)

>> ^videosiftbannedme:
Why does Glenn Beck always look like the first guy who loses it in a platoon when they come under enemy fire? Or the asshole that pushes kids out of the way to escape a burning building.



He was the guy in highschool was too fat and too much of a pussy to play sports, too stupid to do well academically, not sophisticated enough to engineer or be part of the arts program, and too hated to be in student politics.

So he had only one other option; picking on poor kids.

>> ^videosiftbannedme:
Why does Glenn Beck always look like the first guy who loses it in a platoon when they come under enemy fire? Or the asshole that pushes kids out of the way to escape a burning building.
He just has that persona to me. Am I alone in this?


Nope, I totally agree. He's like George Costanza only not the least bit likable.

Why does Glenn Beck always look like the first guy who loses it in a platoon when they come under enemy fire? Or the asshole that pushes kids out of the way to escape a burning building.

He just has that persona to me. Am I alone in this?

i was put in a similar situation. I was stationed at two different Enemy prisoner of war camps, or E.P.W's in military jargon. I was apart of an engineering batalion, and it was our job to build and maintain these camps. I witnessed brutality on wide sliding scale. From food deprevation, to not giving the prisoners any shade all day in the summer desert. To acts of physical brutality, it was a kind of sport, likened to dog fighting. The prisoners were placed in an area that was enclosed by a circle on consentina wire...or razor wire i think is similar. Soldiers would stand around the outside of the wire and taunt, beat, and humiliate these guys. It was all in the name of a good laugh..and they did laugh. They would try to instigate fights among prisoners in the circle by handing out lunch rations...the trick was that there would always be one ration short. Like musical chairs. I saw the prisoners fight each other for food but it seemed like a show, they're wasn't any brutal animosity..It was done out of nessesity, like a father spanking a child, they're was an emotionasl control that the priosoners maintained. If a prisoner was known to be a fighter he would get special treatment. Sticks were thrown into the ring, in the hopes that a more violent bloodshed would ensue, thankfully it never happened, while I was there anyway. I watched through binoculars with my section sergent, and a few others in my platoon. My sergent would get the same thrill out of watching as the men standing outside the wire...Sad days. I never spoke out while there, because honestly I felt like the only one who was upset by it. There was a mob mentality, that if you expressed any remorse for the prisoners that you were weak, or a fag. And even if I did report the acts to anyone with brass, they would'nt do a damn thing about it...after all they didn't want to risk looking like a fag to their higher-ups. In my opinion most commisioned officers are most concerned with getting promoted, getting to that next level of achievement, and they would sacrafice anything to get there, so long as they looked good to the big brass. Yeah I definitly think selifish attitudes were overriding any desire to help those poor bastards. Unlike the guy on the tape, talking about those incidents to peers has the opposite affect. It's best for me to bury those feelings and memories. When I do, I feel a little more normal, but once I start telling the stories, and friends/girlfriends get an idea of what its like they treat me differently. I just want to be like everyone else is all. I don't want be president of any chapters, I don't want to give lectures at universities. And when people don't know about the incidents I went through I feel a little more like a normnal person. not someone who needs to be coddled, or pittied, or given special treatment. I think anyone who wants to know the truth about what's going on out there, just has to open a book, or read the paper. I commend this guy, he's doing something about it, good for him. But i very very rarely open myself up like that where friends and family might see it.

I don't really have any negative feelings about you either way, I met alot of troops like you in Kuwait already, they were all pissed they weren't fighting a conventional military force under a very vague mission statement of bringing Freedom and Democracy. Its hard to do anything when you have no definitive objective or exit strategy. Surprisingly to me a lot of them fell in love with the place and went native, but that happened in Vietnam and other conflicts as well.

The drug problem in Afghanistan is economical, when the Taliban took over they banned the drug trade with their usual heavy hand tactics, when chaos began the drug trade began all again. Culturally alot of people cultivated it for medicinal use, which explains my own rather liberal views towards drugs. But now mostly its a cash crop, for most its a means of survival though there are farms that are solely created to feed back funds into the Taliban movement and other warring factions. The old "its okay to grow this because it only destroys the infidel" ignoring the large drug abuse levels in the local population, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and many other nations through which it makes its way.

In terms of imposing culture I think alot of US military and political planners, coming from the top down Bush belief that "democracy will simply flourish given the chance" implemented alot of very silly political and economical ideas. I remember reading about the imposition of democratic elections in Iraq in rural tribal areas, the US civies where then shocked to find that everyone voted by tribal alliances and background. It's again a failure to read the human terrain of the battlefield in the same way we had occur in Vietnam.

This aspect is covered very well in several chapters of Dexter Filkins The Forever War - http://www.amazon.com/Forever-War-Dexter-Filkins/dp/0307266397
Showing the disparity of understanding between coalition forces and the local population, I recommend it as unlike many books it stays politically neutral with no preaching on either side but rather an account of a journalist who went through Afghanistan and Iraq during the opening stages of the war.

In reply to this comment by smooman:
As per our last "discussion" you probably dont like me much but I think i just found some common ground =)

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:

Given the last 8 years, I believe the Western world needs to engage the Arab world in dialog but it must respect the cultural background of the region and not just think that it can westernize ideas through brute force and seemingly endless criticism of it's religion.

I, for one, absolutely HATE the idea of westernizing Arab and Persian nations (namely Iraq and Trashgan....I mean Afghanistan). One of the platoons in my unit, while we were in Afghanistan, went out on a mission with the objective of demolishing a cannabis field. I was livid when I found out. These are a people who have been a nation far, far longer than we (the USA) and here we are telling them, forcing them even, to be like us while completely disregarding centuries of culture and history. Fuck that!

As per our last "discussion" you probably dont like me much but I think i just found some common ground =)

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:

Given the last 8 years, I believe the Western world needs to engage the Arab world in dialog but it must respect the cultural background of the region and not just think that it can westernize ideas through brute force and seemingly endless criticism of it's religion.

I, for one, absolutely HATE the idea of westernizing Arab and Persian nations (namely Iraq and Trashgan....I mean Afghanistan). One of the platoons in my unit, while we were in Afghanistan, went out on a mission with the objective of demolishing a cannabis field. I was livid when I found out. These are a people who have been a nation far, far longer than we (the USA) and here we are telling them, forcing them even, to be like us while completely disregarding centuries of culture and history. Fuck that!

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
I could list a billion Bush apologies and it wouldn't matter jack to Obama-zombies.



Of course Bush apologized for a lot of things, but not for the things people were criticizing him for.

He didn't apologize for invading Iraq under false pretenses, he apologized for displaying a "Mission Accomplished" banner too soon.

He didn't apologize for the government's handling of Katrina nor did he say that the FEMA director was less than effective in his allocation of resources... he apologized for not landing Airforce 1 in Louisiana instead of flying over it.

It isn't that Bush didn't apologize for anything, it is that he very often missed the point (almost intentionally at times). Sure, Obama could say "I'm sorry that the people I chose to check out Tom Daschle screwed up", but he didn't. He took responsibility for the actions of those under him, the same way a platoon sergeant is still responsible for the actions of those under his leadership, even when the platoon sergeant isn't directly involved in the screw-up.

There is a point to be made that many people are/were too critical of Bush at times, but I really can't see a reason to criticize Obama for accepting responsibility for the actions of those under his command.

I love SKYDIVING... and anything to do with the Marine Corps.
Graduated from Parris Island in 1988.
Platoon 1049, A Co, 1st BN
Semper Fi

Ahh, yes! Mr. Keith David!
He also portrayed 'King', in Platoon; the Arbiter on Halo 3, and Julius in the Saints Row series.
John Carpenter directed (and cast?)him in - They Live, and The Thing.


Fox Interviewer : "So, Keith, exactly did you go from 'Keith the Southwood Carpenter' on a popular child's T.V. show,
to a pot-smoking soldier, (Oliver Stone's) to a
top selling Sci-horror actor, to voice-over actor for the latest "M" rated
video games?"

Keith : "Good agent?"

Fox Interviewer : "Mr, David, do you hate yourself? Did you know that your performance in "Pitch Black" helped launch Vin Diesel's career?"

Keith : "Now hold on a minute! What's wrong with Vin Deisel?"

Fox Interviewer : "I'm asking the questions here! Not Mr Rodger's "Donkey Kong man"! "

Wow, can you imagine these guys doing the score for Platoon?

Platoon was a great film.

Barnes, the beast. Elias the friend or "ally." Taylor, the thread between the two.

It looks more and more dated as time goes on, but still a great flick.

Its Dubya damnit.

>.>

So that's why Platoon was a good movie.

Fake! that didn't look like 'Platoon' at all.

Huh. Looks like they're taking it in a direction that arcs back closer to the book's storyline, if the few seconds flashing a mech is any indicator.

Really, though, I'd like to see the first Starship Troopers remade to be more like the book. CG these days is advanced enough to make it cost-effective. Instead of a skinny looking soldiers wielding wimpy assault rifles, we'd finally get to see a platoon of soldiers in hardened mech suits equipped with machine guns and tactical nukes.

It would be amazing.