Sarah Palin's next grand slam: Hollywood filmmakers "disparage the war effort", "trash what the troops fight for", show "reflexive anti-Americanism"

+++UPDATE+++

We have a new TV report, from CBS - see our previous posts regarding "America by Heart" with the topics:

a) Levi Johnston / American Idol

b) Barack and Michelle Obama / Jeremiah Wright

Here is the report from CBS:

Another very good overview about the "leak" controversy was created by Newsy:

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

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Our new post:

Sarah Palin has had a somewhat "love and hate" relationship with Hollywood: One day she would complain because filmmakers were allegedly "mocking her family" (for example in the "Family Guy" affair"), the next day she would embrace Hollywood by offering herself as a commodity in a reality show, by appearing on Leno and of course by famously cheering her daughter on during her appearances with DWTS.

Her "love" for Hollywood seems to have prevailed during the last months into a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. Therefore it was surprising to read in her new book "America by Heart" that there is another group of people who had become a prominent target for Sarah Palin:

Hollwood filmmakers!

In classic Palin style, she dishes out viciously.

Why?

Well, she explains it in great length.

On page 40, she looks down the barrel of her gun and takes aim:

There was a time when our popular culture shared the American people's admiration of our fighting men and women. They didn't just mouth words about "supporting the troops" while they trashed everything our soldiers were fighting for, the way they often do today. Even Hollywood celebrities risked their lives for the freedom that made them rich.

It seems that Sarah apparently holds the view that recently "Hollywood celebrities" have trashed everything American soldiers have been fighting for.

But why is that?

Sarah Palin is not shy to explain and on page 42 she launches her grand slam against Hollywood:

Today Hollywood seems to be more at home disparaging the war effort than supporting it. During the Iraq war, Hollywood did something it had never done before in the history of American warfare: It made movies like Rendition and Green Zone, films that were critical of the war while the troops were still fighting in the field. It's their right to be critical, of course, just as it's our right not to support undermining our troops while they are risking their lives in battle; and Americans didn't. These anti-Iraq War films all tanked at the box office. You would think that if love of country didn't inspire Hollywood to make different films, love of the box office receipts would.

What makes this reflexive anti-Americanism hardest to swallow is the fact that it is our troops - these men and women who are being portrayed as unwitting (and witting) agents of greed and evil on the big screen - who make the entertainment industry possible. Hollywood stars like nothing better than to stand up on Oscar night and congratulate themselves for their courage in speaking truth to power. They forget - or refuse to acknowledge - that someone is paying the price for their freedom to speak their minds. Dissent is a form of patriotism, but it's far from the highest form. Our men and women in uniform own that honor.

So here are two of the movies that Sarah Palin doesn't appreciate, according to "America by Heart."

Green Zone, starring prominent Palin-critic Matt Damon:

Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon:

Controversies about anti-war movies are of course not new. For example, Oscar-winning "All Quiet on the Western Front" from 1930, in my opinion one of the best films of all times, has had quite a history:

All Quiet... was censored and banned in many countries. The French did not like aspersions cast upon the virtue of its women. Germans objected particularly to the character of Himmelstross, who becomes a sadistic Army-sanctioned martinet, and to the discussion amongst the soldiers about the causes of war. Germany was the 2nd biggest European market for American films in 1930, and Universal wanted to make a cut that would be acceptable there, partly because it was the homeland of Universal's founder, Carl Laemmle. But the Nazis disrupted the premiere, Joseph Goebbels made a speech denouncing it, mice, stink bombs and sneezing powder were released in the theater and outside, the SS instigated a riot. The Nazi paper called it "A Jewish lie" and "a hate film slandering the German soldier." The film was banned inside Germany, but the German language version played to full houses just over the border, and special trains and buses transported the audience to theaters in Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. In Poland, the ending was cut. All Quiet... was banned in Italy and did not play there until 1956. It was banned in Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and New Zealand. It finally played Australia with severe cuts. The film was not seen in Germany again until 1952.

So Sarah Palin apparently prefers glorious war films with pure American heroes and lots of shiny uniforms and smiling faces. I think that's what was commonly called "Propaganda" in the past, and would still be regarded as such today.

But what if a war is dirty, rotten, far from pure, when good could suddenly turn into evil and friend or foe could become difficult to distinguish?

Sarah Palin, whose ambition it is to be the first female American president, the commander in chief of the mightiest military machine in the world, has a simple solution:

IT SIMPLY DOES NOT HAPPEN.

You have heard right. In Sarah Palin's world, the USA does not fight unjust wars, because it's simply impossible. Case closed!

She writes on page 38:

"Which is why, contrary to the ugly accusations of the antiwar crowd, America doesn't go to war for big business or for oil or for the sake of imperial conquest."

This simplistic and naive world view makes me shudder. This is the perception of a young girl who doesn't really know anything about world politics and wars. It's the view of a naive young girl who marvels at handsome soldiers in their smart uniforms. It's Sarah Palin's view.

So, is there any comfort, is there any hope?

Not really. Look at what Sarah describes as her "favorite part" of a song:

And you'll be sorry that you messed with

The U S of A

'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass

It's the American way.

No, this is certainly NOT the American way. That perfectly describes Sarah Palin's way.

Who granted Sarah Palin the right to speak for all of America anyway?

Nobody, as far as I can see.

It's time for American citizens, filmmakers, actors and others to speak up and let the world know what Americans really think about the views of Sarah Palin.

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