MY VIEWS: UN-"REDACTED"

I am sure that there are "the ravages of war", and events that would horrify the average citizen. Thankfully (or cowardly), I will not ever know the ordeal the American troops are going through, in Iraq, or any other military action previous.

I do not endorse, or approve of the action in Iraq, and I have made this fact very clear. I support a partial pull out, and total re stationing of the troops presently in Iraq, to Afghanistan as soon as humanly possible.

Having said all of this, I cannot, and will not support a film that denigrates the American military personnel. Not having watched the movie, but having read about thirty reviews from people who have, The movie "Redacted" seems to do just that. Directed by movie legend Brian Di Palma, and financed by the dot com billionaire turned Dallas Maverick owner, Mark Cuban, the movie apparently......well, read one of the synopsis yourself...

"Based on the recent events surrounding the rape and murder of a 14-year old Iraqi girl, and the killing of three of her family members by four US soldiers and one civilian. The soldiers were sleep-deprived and living on energy drinks and sleeping pills in a situation where anyone outside the fence was considered the enemy. The killings have been the most provocative in a series of war crimes that have tarnished the reputation of US armed forces in Iraq."

If you feel strongly about this...there is a movement to picket and petition against the movie (click here) . Frankly I do not. However, I would like to see some sort of public outpouring, some sort of engagement, some sort of public discourse, some sort of public awareness ABOUT ANYTHING other than Paris Hilton, or TMZ's flavor of the month.

I would like to run into someone who cares for one, or cares enough to follow the political arena regardless of their party affiliations. I would like to run into someone who occasionally watches C-Span, or hell, even one stinking debate. While there ARE rare exceptions, the comments I usually get are..."Where do you find the time to learn about these things...or read up on these things...or write about these things, or why do you even so much as care about these things?

The answer is it is simple. While you know who won Super Bowl I, I know who the fourteenth President was. While you know word for word the final episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond", I have watched the latest ad from Tancredo, and seen Hillary stump in Aames, Iowa.

I guess we all have our hobbies, our priorities, and our own sense of what is important. But no matter if you are a bleeding heart liberal like me, or a blood thirsty, bigoted right winger with the compassion of my right testicle for his / her common man; can't we all agree that despite the bad 1% of the American troops that are bound to be attracted to the military life, our troops are something that we can all be proud of, whether or not you agree with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, or this war?

By the way...what is "redacted?" - To redact is to edit, or prepare for publishing. Frequently, a redacted document, such as a memo or e-mail message, has simply had personal (or possibly actionable) information deleted or blacked out; as a consequence, redacted is often used to describe documents from which sensitive information has been expunged.

And that is the "World According to Kimba"

Thanks for reading