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Category: War

Korean War, Old Amusement Parks, and Norah Jones on PBS

6 June 2010

Three summer programs on the government’s Public Broadcasting System (PBS) look interesting.

In Unforgettable: The Korean War, Korean War (1950-1953) veterans recount their memories of America in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when young Americans were drafted by the government and shipped off to defend South Korea as United Nations forces against the invading Red Army in the north. For three long years, Americans fought North Korea and Communist China to save South Korea. The men recall the “un-won” war that never ended, which the Truman administration did not even want to call a war (it was “the Korean conflict” or a “police action.”) Finally, it was called the Forgotten War (for more on the Korean War, read my book review of Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950 and my interview with its author, Martin Russ). PBS airs the program in the High-Definition (HD) format from 10 pm to 11 pm ET, Monday, June 21 (repeats 6/24/10, 10 pm to 11 pm ET).

PBS will re-broadcast a 1999 program, Great Old Amusement Parks, about the pre-Disney days before theme parks, when amusement parks were the places where families gathered for a cool escape on a hot summer day. Among the featured parks: Playland in Rye, New York, Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana, and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in northern California, where people can still ride the merry-go-round. The special also checks out some classic wooden rollercoasters and other rides (airs 8 pm to 9 pm ET on Wednesday, June 30). Later this summer, Soundstage features singer and pianist Norah Jones, whose debut album sold 18 million copies worldwide. This episode was filmed earlier this year at St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York City, with Ms. Jones performing a blend of covers, hits such as “Don’t Know Why” and “Come Away With Me,” and tracks from her newest album, The Fall (airs 10 pm to 11 pm ET, Thursday, July 1).

Permalink  |  Posted in Music, Television, War

Screen Shot: ‘Green Zone’

12 March 2010

Opening this weekend, director Paul Greengrass (United 93) gives us Green Zone starring Matt Damon. In what plays like a dramatization of an extended edition of NBC Universal’s Hardball on MSNBC, with host Chris Matthews harping about the U.S. military intervention in Iraq, NBC Universal’s Green Zone takes the same non-controversial position, namely, that the initial motive for taking down Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, to eliminate so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMD), was a bust. By now, everyone knows that. It’s a narrow perspective, too narrow for what the subject deserves (Greengrass had the same problem in his morally agnostic United 93), but this picture works as a straightforward fable about the Bush administration’s incompetence in waging war against America’s religious fascist enemies. Opening and closing with the chaos that was (and continues to be) Iraq, in an aimless, selfless military incursion which has killed thousands of Americans and accomplished nothing in our self-interest, the film features Damon as a lone soldier who eventually refuses to just follow orders. Steadying his trademark jerky camera only slightly, Greengrass depicts Baghdad’s green zone as a hedonistic haven for beer-guzzling slobs sending men off to die for no legitimate reason, stocked with ladies in bikinis and a press corps willing to go along with the government’s line of the day, usually spun by Greg Kinnear’s sniveling Bushie who could easily be one of today’s sniveling Obamatrons spewing about Iraq, Afghanistan, or, for that matter, Obama’s scheme to seize control of the medical profession and health insurance industry. Sneering Kinnear even looks and sounds like White House propaganda meister Robert Gibbs. With Amy Ryan as a Wall Street Journal toady for the U.S. government, who begins to question what she’s done (better late than never), and Kinnear dispatching teams to throw rogue Damon off the trail proving that the emperor has no WMDs (and worse than that no purpose), the character to watch is a courageous individualist named Freddy (Khalid Abdalla in an excellent performance). In two words, “for me,” Freddy declares the proper moral imperative for an act of military self-defense, yet, as Green Zone capably illustrates, nobody’s listening to Freddy until it’s too late. “We won,” someone asserts as a fact, after George W. Bush’s infamous Mission: Accomplished banner is seen flapping in the wind. No, we did not, we have not, and we will not, because winning by the anti-American standards set by Bush/Obama is impossible. Worse, as Green Zone amply shows with looters, snipers, and deposed generals, we have abandoned the idea that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack and the rising religious fascism of nuclearized Iran, it is urgently necessary to achieve total victory over our enemies, not coddle civilians, appease Islamism, and cater to those who seek to destroy us. If nothing else, Green Zone gives us a man who rejects the status quo and acts to slow, if not stop, the self-sacrifice in Iraq.

Permalink  |  Posted in Movies, War

Update on Obama’s Marjah

21 February 2010

The Associated Press reports an update from the front:

“The Marjah operation is a major test of a new NATO strategy that stresses protecting civilians over [defeating enemy combatants]…Troops cannot call in airstrikes to clear snipers from buildings if they believe civilians are inside. Troops cannot fire on suspected insurgents unless they are seen carrying a weapon or discarding one.”

And now, with 12 troops reportedly killed in action since the heavily advertised “offensive” began, the Obama administration is refusing to identify casualties by nationality. The degree of self-sacrifice is not nearly enough for the thoroughly corrupt Afghan ruler, who insists on zero civilian deaths. Since Islamic terrorists attacked America on September 11, 2001, it has been our nation’s military policy to put the lives of Others (civilians and enemy combatants, who are often the same) above the lives of Americans; now self-sacrifice is explicit and official policy. This idea, imposed by Barack Obama in Marjah, the first major ground operation since he ordered 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, is an evil policy of national suicide; it dishonors every American, soldier and civilian, and it must not be tolerated by the American public.

While the press fawns over the latest scandal, Democrats scheme to resurrect socialized medicine and sneak to enslave the medical profession, and conservatives whoop themselves into a frenzy over a Christian libertarian who would not lift a weapon against an enemy until after the United States is attacked, the men and women in our Armed Forces at Marjah are being slowly blown to bits, one by one, solider by soldier. Our soliders are dying in Afghanistan so that Others including our enemies may live. With Iran on the verge of being able to wage atomic warfare, we have every reason to believe that we, the people, are next.

Permalink  |  Posted in News, War

Massacre Looms at Marjah

13 February 2010

President Obama is taking the Bush administration’s foreign policy to the logical next step in Afghanistan. America has issued an explicit announcement of an impending strike, including the exact location of where our troops will be deployed, in an outrageous yet unsurprising act of self-sacrifice. According to Voice of America, and this is being widely reported, the U.S. will attack the Taliban at Marjah in the southern region of Afghanistan, following a public campaign to notify the enemy and civilians of our planned troop positions. The purpose of the announcement, according to commanding General Stanley McChrystal, (acting under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Afghanistan), is to prevent the loss of civilian life. The general apparently thinks the advance notification will lead to the Taliban abandoning Marjah without resistance. Unless there has been a secret war and the general knows more than he’s saying, this policy is an explicit statement that the lives of our soldiers are of lesser value than the lives of others. Whatever happens at Marjah, the largest combat operation since President Obama ordered 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in December, the offensive is based on pure altruism, the idea that everyone else whether civilians or enemy combatants, matters but you don’t, and Marjah is pre-set as an elaborate deathtrap for American soldiers. Those of us (including me), who considered supporting candidate Obama because he promised to pull troops out of Iraq and act in America’s self-interest, take note: he is advancing the Bush policy of sacrifice as our national military defense purpose, only without the pretense of actually fighting the enemy.

Not everyone in the military accepts self-sacrifice as his moral purpose. One young soldier, Carl Bjork, who is being persecuted by the Obama administration (he is facing a court-martial for doing his job), is fighting back: visit his family’s Web site, Support Captain Carl Bjork, to learn more about his cause and how to help (hat tip: Dr. John David Lewis). In the meantime, his fellow soldiers are marching into a deathtrap at Marjah…

Permalink  |  Posted in News, War

New Photographs of 9/11

10 February 2010

The government has released a series of aerial photographs of the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attack on America. The photo set, appropriately presented and captioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) here, taken from a helicopter by Greg Semendinger of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), was made available to the public following an ABC News Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filing. The record of this atrocity, currently the worst attack in U.S. history, speaks for itself. Nine years, two counterproductive military incursions, and over 6,000 dead Americans later, America is still at war with states that sponsor Islamic fascism. But we continue to evade that fact and, with religious dictatorship Iran vowing to destroy the West and a national foreign and domestic policy of self-sacrifice, I think we are ominously, rapidly heading toward our nation’s destruction. For more audio-visual records of this historic assault, read my 2006 roundup of recommended DVDs on the subject, or my 2005 article on DVDs with CNN’s coverage, other footage, and the Discovery Channel’s 90-minute chronological recreation of United Air Lines Flight 93, The Flight That Fought Back. Leonard Peikoff named 9/11 Black Tuesday. These photographs, which do not begin to capture the horror of that day, remind us why he is right.

Permalink  |  Posted in War

Books: ‘Valley of Death’ and Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu

6 February 2010

Look for a former French lieutenant’s tale of pre-Vietnam War, Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War (Random House hardcover, 752 pages, available February 23 for $ 35) by Ted Morgan. The New York City-based writer and journalist, who fought in the French Army in Algeria, has produced an epic account of the contest that ended French colonial rule in Indochina, the 1954 battle between France and a Communist-backed “people’s army” in Vietnam.

Using French military archives and exclusive firsthand reports, and tracking countless errors by the American government, Morgan reframes the six-week battle for Dien Bien Phu, a remote valley on the border of Laos along a rural trade route, which was fueled by Communism’s rise following World War 2, particularly by Chinese dictator Mao Tse-tung and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who were already waging a proxy war with the West in the Korean peninsula. Morgan, a Vietnam reporter who knew the late David Halberstam, provides facts according to his research, which point to the West’s chronic ignorance and appeasement of Communism, though he is more focused on what happened than how and why it happened.

Morgan, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has written biographies of Franklin Roosevelt (FDR), Winston Churchill, and Somerset Maugham (The Painted Veil). In the fully annotated and indexed Valley of Death, he provides an important perspective on the West’s foreign policy in mid-20th century. That America’s ineffectual war in Vietnam began with this climactic battle, and has continued with decades of lost battles and wars, culminating in our current debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, is unmistakable.

As Morgan writes on page 172, some opposed American involvement in Vietnam, including Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, a Republican who, Morgan writes, “called for an amendment that no funds should be given to the French until they ’set a target date for … complete independence … the people of Indochina … have been fighting for the same thing for which 177 years ago the people of the American colonies fought.” Morgan notes that “this was the man whom [President] Lyndon Johnson called ‘trigger-happy’ when he ran against him in 1964.” Sen. Goldwater went on, observing that, by aiding France, “we are saying to the great men who penned the document and whose ghosts must haunt these walls, that we do not believe entirely in the Declaration of Independence.” Despite Sen. Goldwater’s warning that “as surely as day follows night our boys will follow this $400 million [aid to France]“, Congress defeated his amendment, approved President Eisenhower’s 1953 aid package, and soon entered the Vietnam War, one of several wars in Korea, Iran, and Iraq, that the United States neither declared nor won.

Permalink  |  Posted in Books, War

Books: ‘Nothing Less Than Victory’

29 September 2009

With diabolical new plots to attack America by Islamic terrorists and Iran continuing to threaten the West with nuclear destruction, Professor John Lewis makes the urgent case for “offensive actions in pursuit of peace” in Nothing Less Than Victory: Decisive Wars and the Lessons of History, due to be published by Princeton University Press next year. Dr. Lewis, a friend and teacher whose military and ancient history courses are superb, promises on his Web site that Nothing Less Than Victory “shows that a war’s endurance rests in each side’s reasoning, moral purpose, and commitment to fight, and why an effectively aimed, well-planned, and quickly executed offense can end a conflict and create the conditions needed for long-term peace.” Dr. Lewis, whom I once interviewed for an article series about Alexander the Great, is both extremely passionate and knowledgeable, a rare and welcome combination among today’s intellectuals. His new book deserves serious attention.

Permalink  |  Posted in Books, War

Memorial Day

25 May 2009

Let us always remember those Americans enlisted in the United States Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force who died in the defense of our nation. Most of my recent war-themed articles are reviews of movies about those who served in the sacrificial military incursions initiated after the 9/11 attack on America. But there are a few others, including this 2000 book review of Breakout, by U.S. Marine Martin Russ, about a campaign in the Korean War, and this 2004 op-ed about a turning point in the so-called war in Iraq. Anyone who has fought for the United States of America knows we have lost many men and women and they are well worth remembering.

Permalink  |  Posted in War

War Shots

10 February 2009

With today’s news that the Obama administration’s historic economic legislation has been approved in the U.S. Senate, it’s worth remembering what propelled Barack Obama to the presidency two years ago: his opposition to the Bush administration’s war in Iraq and his promise to withdraw our troops. President Obama has yet to act on that pledge.

The men and women being sacrificed are choosing to check out on their own terms, according to a new report. For the fourth straight year, the number of soldier suicides has escalated. "We lost more soldiers to suicide than to al-Qaeda," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. With self-sacrifice as the nation’s—and the military’s—officially dictated purpose, young people can be expected to practice what is increasingly preached. The spike in the Army’s suicide rate includes those at the nation’s top military training center, the United States Military Academy at West Point.

When Ayn Rand visited West Point in 1974 to deliver her speech, “Philosophy: Who Needs It,” she told the young cadets: “The army of a free country has a great responsibility: the right to use force, but not as an instrument of compulsion and brute conquest—as the armies of other countries have done in their histories—only as an instrument of a free nation’s self-defense, which means: the defense of a man’s individual rights.” She was right. I suppose the soldier suicides will decrease only when they are returned to their proper and noble aim: defense of the nation’s self-interest.

Speaking of West Point, the Army has created a new oral history center for first-hand accounts of those who served in World War 2 through the incursions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As for Ayn Rand, a new blog has been established for advancing her ideas.

Permalink  |  Posted in War