Sean Penn returns to Iraq

[aeon flux]

January 14, 2004

2nd Act - A year later, Sean Penn returns to Iraq and files a personal, candid report from the front

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Sean Penn went to Iraq a year ago not as an actor, but as a father, a husband and an American. He made the visit, from Dec. 13 to 15, 2002, to learn about the American-Iraqi conflict from the people who were living through it. A year later, the week before Saddam Hussein was captured, Penn returned to Iraq to find out how life had changed after the American invasion. What follows is his account of what he saw.

...Farther down the road, Hiwa and I come across a U.S. military foot patrol on Haifa Street. While many of the engagement policies and raid tactics of coalition forces are incendiary to the local population, the rank-and-file soldiers I meet behave with dignity and grace in their daily interactions with Iraqi people.

U.S. soldiers today are not what you'd picture if you grew up on World War II movies. Think younger.

Now add zits (some of them).

And access to e-mail.

This is not the war of yesteryear, with relatives waving our boys off on ships and losing all contact beyond a weekly mail drop. These are young people who, via the Internet, are reminded daily of the comfort and safety of home and are quick to express their desire to return to their families. I want to ask many of them their feelings about our occupation in Iraq, and some express thoughts on this issue without being asked. And their thoughts represent all sides of the debate. But one has to be mindful that these are young people who have lost friends to battle, and girlfriends, boyfriends, wives and husbands to distance. One wouldn't expect them to yield easily to the notion that perhaps the United States should not have sent them in the first place...

(1st of a two-part special report)

link

[rumguy]

1. great article, a fascinating read....

[bluedeminredstate]

2. Good for him!!

He's an American citizen who has the ability and the funds to get over there to see the outcome of the war he was so against. I think it's a very patriotic thing he's doing, but I know the freeps and other knuckledraggers will see this as a traitorous act. Screw 'em - at least he's suporting the troops as they love to say....

:thumbsup: