How Sean Penn Won the War
by Andrew BreitbartThis week’s Washington Times column:
On this day in which Americans honor their war dead, perhaps a smidgen of our time should be spent reflecting on the unheralded and fearless wartime antics of Sean Penn.
Yes, that Sean Penn: Hollywood actor, director, tough guy and agent provocateur in America’s time of peril – a man history, no doubt, will credit with an assist in bringing democracy to Iraq.
It is now time for Mr. Penn to end his service to his country and commit to the next chapter in his life. He has done more than enough. America simply doesn’t make medals for Mr. Penn’s kind of service. Nor would he accept them. Now he must come clean and take on the next challenge of his career: Bring the rest of Hollywood to America’s aid by creating an army of underground patriots.
With a Democrat as commander in chief, it’s now or never for Tinseltown to get the patriotic bug.
Since his friends and political allies don’t read this column, I feel comfortable outing the left-wing agitator as an unsung patriot in the war on terrorism. I know that other entertainment media outlets are working this blockbuster story and that the mainstream media is still figuring out how to play it. Like in his Oscar-winning acting, Mr. Penn has broken all the rules.
In late 2002, Mr. Penn toured Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad with his camera and offered the Pentagon precise locations for bombing. “Shock and Awe” was a rousing success to a great extent because a courageous and humble actor put country first and used a pliant media to create a believable character: an angry Hollywood actor turned antiwar activist and citizen journalist.
There’s a reason we call him America’s greatest actor: We all believed it!
Who else could he have gotten a camera into Saddam’s media-controlled country right before we went to war? Countless lives were saved because Mr. Penn isolated Ba’athist strongholds and made sure that hospitals and nurseries were spared.
In a profession in which reputation is everything, Mr. Penn has been willing to sacrifice his own to ensure the good guys won and that millions of Iraqis were emancipated from unspeakable human rights horrors. The media would have crucified him if he were open to making millions of Iraqis free. So instead he went underground. Deep underground. Times are too complicated for a straightforward hero – so we got an edgy, postmodern one. Cool.
You can read the column in full here.
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132 Comments
Remind me to thank Sean Penn.
Very funny insights here. The headline is a classic.
Could the Whole Truth be even MORE profound? Could it be that Sean Penn is but part of a dastardly cunning conservative "sleeper cell" comprised of Danny Glover, Babs Streisand, Jeanne Garofalo, and Rosie O'Donnell…?!
I'm totally seeing Sean Penn in a brand new light.
Yea.
Call Michael Medved next full moon and bring up this stunning revelation.
I said it over @ Facebook – A lost chapter from Profiles in Courage
I see the first Film Actors Guild member inducted into Team America.
You would have really had the Liberals heads exploding, if you had also reported that Penn reported directly to Dick Cheney.
Don't you wish you could be there when Penn sees this? There can't possibly be a more humorless individual on the planet. Andrew, I think he's going to call you a bad name for outing him.
If ever there was a group of people in serious need of needling, it's the celebrity class. Well done, Andrew.
I don't think Penn has ever returned to reality since playing the scuzzy little spy in The Falcon and the Snowman. But I do hear buzz around town that his next big role will be playing young Obama in the quadrilogy being planned by Robert Redford and Warren Beatty. Now that's acting.
I could read that straight through without noticing a hint of sarcasm, if I didn't know about the author. Fifty years from now it shall be cited as a reference in the drive to posthumously award Mr. Penn both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, while the backers vigorously insist the CIA must release the true records of his meritorious service.
I wonder how many times Penn will have to read it before he gets it. If only something like this was true … the penultimate sacrifice, your reputation. That might be more difficult than dodging bullets.
He could have done better – I was under the impression the hospitals and nurseries were not spared.
Sean Penn couldn't care less about the Iraqi people of course, if there were a famine in Hollywood he would eat his own family to save himself, while saying with big crocodile tears running down his face, that he was saving "them" from starvation…in fact, I think most of his kind would.
These days you'd have to be a big-shot Hollywood liberal to get away with blackface.
You mean the ones with the ammo dumps inside and the field artillery parked alongside? Sure took the Iraqi platoons stationed in the buildings by surprise.
What better cover than a left wing trouble maker? Who can forget his "the Redcoats are coming" trot into New Orleans with shotgun in hand? What a photo..I wonder who had to write the letters on his finger?
Bush couldn't care less about the Iraqi people of course. According to Wilkerson, Cheney played him like a player piano. How many babies do you think died by Bush's Shock and Awe? Doesn't matter does it! Bush did not even care to find a real reason to go to war. Remember the torture rooms that sprang up after ythe invasion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpbag-KSoYI
Gee, remember the rape rooms before the Invasions? Don't act like it was sugerplums and fairy tales over in Saddamland.
the liberals LOVED saddam , who are they kidding?
I don't care what he did for our country, he CANNOT be permitted to play Curly or any one of the stooges. This will be trampling on a vital national identity.
What is really amazing is your willingness to actually believe such things without taking the time to turn a critical eye. I do not care what side of the asile, what news brodcast, or who told me, I do not believe anything I hear. A wise old Master Chief Petty Officer once told me, "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see."
The news from anyside is allways trying to sell you thier version of events. It is what they don"t tell you that is much more important. What you see with out understanding the context is only half the story. Too many people on either side of the asile just want to have thier own beliefs spoonfed to them. Are you one of those?
A person at least has to have a sense of humor to play one of my beloved Stooges. I would hope any Casting Director, Producer would at least understand that much.
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/03/sean-penn...
OK sorry. Larry. One of the other stooges.
Hey Hey Ho Ho One of the stooges has got to GO.
Huh, I always thought of Sean as a useful idiot being used by dictators.
He's not the pinhead we always thought he was.
Fun Fact: pinhead originates from the term "Penn head".
Speaking of- who can forget Dan Blather's blistering interview of "Mr. President" Hussein? Brings a tear to me eye just remembering the tough, indefatigable reporter Dan hammering saddam with question after question, at great risk to his own life (much like Sean Penn would do). BTW, there's an old video of this interview on Youtube, where Hussein actually admits that the WMD's were there, but "had been destroyed." Yet even with this confession straight from the horse's mouth, the MSM perpetuates the lie that they never existed. No surprise.
What? is your typical village idiot. Remember all the torture rooms that Hussein had BEFORE the invasion? Remember the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children that HE killed and buried in mass graves? Yeah, Iraq was a paradise before 2003.
After reading this and a myriad of other articles on "Big Hollywood" over the past few months I have a few comments to make (which you will not print):
Do you guys feel positive about ANYTHING? Penn-Head, indeed.
Is sarcasm inbred in you all?
Must you label everything that you detest as 'liberal' or 'socialist'?
And why do you *detest* with such vigor?
Now I know that I can simply delete this site from my tabs, but I find you all fascinating. That such vitriol, suppressed anger and pure small-mindedness exist in America shows us, the rest of the world, what a disgusting moral abyss the United States of America has fallen into.
We can read this all around the world you know.
You people are spreading the petty, the snarky, the pseudo-insightfulness, the spitefulness, the gun-totin' frontier goonery throughout the internet of worldwide readers. That you expose yourself with not so much as a thought to your adolescent, sophamoric, arcane self-righteous comments is a sad sad indictment upon the state of America today.
As your dollar falls, so do your once proud ideals. You have become a 'little nation'.
What a terrible terrible fall for a once great nation. Websites like this hasten that decline because of your predilection to tear down everything that doesn't fit in to your tiny little cage of 'what is right'. For America only, of course. Gary and Andrew: get a grip.
Sad. So sad.
Will he play the REALLY young Obama attending a Muslim madrassa in Indonesia, or a college-age young Obama snorting coke and being chosen editor of the Harvard Law Review without ever having contributed a single paper…?
And what Third World hellhole are you yapping from?
The truth is that inside everyone who isn't American is an American clawing to get out.
Dude wishes he lived here.
It's so obvious
I feel positive about quite a bit. I pretty positive that I detest the COWARDICE that come out of Europe. I'm positive that I appreciate the sacrifices of my nation for a world that doesn't deserve it. I'm positive that the AMERICAN SOLDIER was,is, and always will be a force for all that is good and noble in this world. AND MORE IMPORTANTLY I AM POSITIVE THAT YOU ARE WELCOME TO HIT THE BRICKS AND DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT.
So in which branch of the armed forces did you serve Mr. Breitbart?
When you correct all of the worlds dictatorships about how bad they are, come back to our "little nation" and hold court.
Here's some not so suppressed anger, get lost.
What's that got to do with anything that he said? He could have been talking about this little weasel, aka Jeff Spicoli, aka Sean Penn, being a member of the Department of State.
Sprang up? As I remember that Bush repeated, nearly word for word, what Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, John Edwards, and the list of paper tiger Democrats could go on and on, of how Sadam was a threat and needed to be removed. Yes, they did say that! But as Democrats, they're all talk and no action. Bush gave Sadam 14 months to abide by the resolutions of the tough-as-nails UN. He didn't and he knew the UN wasn't going to do anything but send a scathing letter to Sadam, telling him how disappointed they were with him. Kim Jong Il will no doubt receive one of those letters and possibly a second one expressing more disappointed from this liberal bastion of wusses, aka the UN. But to you there are no bad guys in the world, just Republicans. And we've pushed these otherwise peaceful people to the brink and you and Sean Penn, Jane Fonda, Janeane Garafalo, etc. truly know their plight. Idiot.
Rick Taylor
"As your dollar falls, so do your once proud ideals."
"Your dollar?"
Dead give a way there Abdul Skippy.
How are things going now for you over there in the Mt's. of Pakistan?
Freezing at night I'll bet. Scorching during the day I’ll wager.
No fresh water or food.
“Predator drones” to the left of you, U.S. snipers to the right.
I like it just fine where I am. In the still Greatest Country in the World.
Not Over.
Just pointing out that Breitbart is just another rightwing chickenhawk!
Is the Penn is mightier than the pen?
Is Sean Penn the new age religion version of self-worship?
I wouldn't call him a hypocrite to his face though. He gets pretty angry (ironically – violently angry) when he's confrronted by someone who does not share his utopian dream for peace and love all over the world.
I'd call him the #1 hypocritical deceiver and the #1 mediocre charlatan who is enabled by a mindless idol-worshipping sheep-like media, but that job is already taken by president (look-at-me) Oblahblah.
Hezbollah follows that peaceful strategy too. How about Rick Taylor, casualtiesofwar and What?, go over and be human shields to further their cause? I would say that we get a fund together for them and make sure they chain themselves to the rocket or anti-aircraft sites around the middle east, hold up markers so that ours or Israel's planes can find them.
What a stud Sean is.
I became overwhelmed with emotion when I read of the courageous Jeff Spicoli, what a stud. I hope Robin will take the time to read Spicoli this moving tribute. Mr. Breitbart I salute you for your continued public service bringing these underreported stories to the fore.
We have to have right-wing chickenhawks because if we relied on our left-wing paper tigers, we'd end up in a big smoldering hole. Bush did inherit a non-action foreign policy from Bill Clinton. I believe that Osama himself said in an interview, that he hit us because of our policy of running at the sight of blood portrayed by Bill Clinton.
He forgets about the people clawing to get in to this hell hole.
It's a surprise to me too. My only regret about this column is that Breitbart has now blown his cover. Who will step up and subvert the liberal Hollywood culture now? Who can be than shrill and sanctimonious?
Rick, with all due respect, America is still a great nation. Flaws, deficits, Campaigner-in-Chief… it's still a mile above all other countries for its freedoms, its voice of the people, its natural resources, its generosity, its Constitution. And we want to keep it that way.
Socialism will ultimately destroy America, so no, we won't be placid and polite when we see pinheads like Sean Penn and his ilk bitch-slapping our country. We're a 'little nation'? Sorry, pal, no little nation could ever accomplish what ours has and will, despite Obama's naive and dangerous plans to turn us into the UK, Cuba, Sweden, Canada, or any other socialist nation that has failed to deliver its promises to its citizens while stripping them of the fruits of their labor and decimating incentive and hope. We love America and hate socialism… not hard to understand that, or is it for you?
Websites like this fortify its readers with knowledge. Knowledge is power. Power is paramount.
Rick Taylor, casualtiesofwar and What? probaly have a subscription to "Dictator Beat" magazine where you can win a date with the likes of Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro.
Where did you serve, tough guy?
Rick, I did like your word "goonery." Very cute.
But if you're going to load up your post with an overblown amount of "big words," you should know that you've misspelled "sophomoric," and it's redundant to use it directly after the word "adolescent." Plus, using "arcane" is just plain nonsense… did you mean to use "archaic"? Other silly word choices and grammar and punctuation mistakes abound in your post. Just thought you'd like to know since this site is "read all around the world." Your errors in word usage equally match your errors in assessing this website and most Americans.
To echo a previous post: you're jealous. America rocks, Rick, and you can't stand it. To the point that Big Hollywood is one of your bookmarked sites – ROFL. Big Hollywood embraces America and the principles laid down by our founding fathers, as do most of its readers. Except you, of course – DLTDHYOTWO.
Ah gee, you're leaving and never coming back? Well, see you later! And don't let the doorknob make your day!
(Lord knows his leaving sure made my day…)
"Abdul Skippy" and "Predator drones" – love it! Thumbs up, 1GooDDaDDy.
May I have your permission to someday borrow/steal these awesome terms?
He serves in the unorganized reserves, will be called up as needed. Please direct further inquiries to the 2nd Amendment.
If Tony Almada could fool Jack Bauer …………
Did you spend time inside the minds of Bush and Cheney? Well, likely not, so you may want to qualifiy this with, In my opinion.
I think Sean is too busy to work for the govt right now. I understand he is withdrawing his withdrawal of his divorce to Robin Wright.
What is an "asile"?
And you're right, there is, more often than not, a hidden agenda with people. Like your wife complimenting your haircut when she wants you to take her out to dinner. Or your boss giving you a raise when he wants you to work harder. I'm not clear on your point. By how you've described it, no one should ever do anything ever, because you must first spend time looking for what ISN'T there. But once you find it, wouldn't that mean that you would have to explore what isn't there for THAT? This would be like a house of mirrors, and you would be paralyzed into not ever believing anything or being shackled into not being able to ever make a snap decision.
I'm gonna continue to trust people unless they've proven they can't be trusted, like Nancy Pelosi – much easier and more productive. Most people can "turn a critical eye" on decisions without it taking an inordinate amount of time to evalute.
Well for someone who's all set up to be welcomed by anti-American dictators everywhere there's Janeane Gar 57gfh4b2
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I served in Korea tough guy! I've done my time, you moron. You obviously served sandwiches or something in a food related industry.
I served in Korea tough guy! I've done my time, you moron. You obviously served sandwiches or something in a food related industry.
Please disregard the above post.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, if he can pry himself away from his 12-pack of Schmidt.
Just because you didn't get that appointment as Ambassador to Amsterdam, I see no reason to out Sean. Next thing we know you'll be outing Madonna's efforts to stop the international sex slave trade.
Or maybe Sean Penn is a modern day Howard Campbell .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Night
And how many do you think died under the "Oil for Food" sanctions regime? Or in Operation Desert Fox? Or were those just peachy to you because they were done by Bill Clinton?
Look, who can argue with Sean Penn on politics because let's face it, that scene where Spicoli ordered the pizza in class was HILARIOUS. I remember thinking even back then, wow, I can't wait to see what this guy has to say about human rights and my country's foreign policy. But now this article says he's a spy…wow, hey, maybe he ordered a pizza when Saddam was ordering executions and then Saddam was like…SPICOLI!!!! LOLZ.
I put in 20 years punk! Where the hell did YOU SERVE? Todd did his duty to his country. HOW ABOUT YOU? I'll take any of the decent folks here even the attorneys over a sniveling little douchebag like yourself.
Mr. Eaton, I was thinking more along the lines of Axis Sally or Tokyo Rose.
I always thought Sean Penn was to smart to be the idiot he portrays in real life. Now I know why. Thanks Mr. Penn for a service to this country that almost went unnoticed.
Just face it, the Democratic party is the party of appeasement. They bend over and take whatever today's dictator tells them to do. They haven't been a tough party since JFK started the Vietnam war and LBJ continued it (and even then they screwed it up – oh, by the way, that Democrat started war cost us 58,000 Americans). Since then they've been lilly-livered, spineless unichs. Did you ever watch the movie Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser? Remember the scene on the beach where he was with his womyn friend? He was the caricature of a Democrat. You can kick sand in his face all day long, take his girl and he's left crying about the sunset and dolphin free tuna. Obama's no different. Talks semi-medium tough and carries a toothpick.
You said it better than I could have. Thanks!
Sorry StlDan,
That particular piece of Intel has not yet been declassified by the military.
BTW through the machinations of the Shadow government Cheney is still in charge.
Both
or Ben Stiller
He's a double triple quad spy. So his acting is even better than most think. He could get a part as a puppet in TEAM AMERICA 2.
casualtiesof war unfortunately has other commitments…..
Currently he is posting via the wireless system aboard the Iranian Frigate of the Coast of Saudi Arabia making the waters safe from pirates. Like Sean Penn he to is a "Hero".
Clinton could care less about the Iraqi people of Course. According bubba La Douche, Gore played him like a fiddle. How may babies do think were lost in the eight years of continuous bombing of Iraq during the Clinton adminstration. Doesn't matter does it. Clinton did not even find a real reason to continue the bombing. Remember the secret lab he bombed that turned out to be an aspirin factory……………..
I can do it too only better then you because I can use real facts and don't have to lie DO I "What?"
Brings to mind Senate Majority Leader Reid's infamous "The war is lost" comments, recently celebrated in this newspaper parody:
http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/04/iraqis-celebr...
Memorial Day and Sean Penn in the same sentence? Excuse my brain cramp, but I don't the joke, seriously.
LOL! Nice troll smackdown!
"…That such vitriol, suppressed anger and pure small-mindedness exist in America…" And we apologize, Rick Taylor (aka Abdul Skippy), for those remaining remnants left here from "the rest of the world." We're working on cleaning those up, rest assured.
1GooDDaDDy: Yeah, we are great, aren't we, though? Happy Memorial Day to you and yours.
"Even the attorneys"? I don't know how I should take that? We're not all evil. . . well, just a little.
In any event gentlemen, nice slapdown on this lefto snivler.
To stevenfromhismothersbasement:
Typical libtard. You think, (I use that term loosely here).
If you’re not “black”, you can’t talk about race.
If you’re not a “women”, you can’t talk about killing your baby in the womb.
If you’re not a “homosexual”, you can’t talk about same sex marriage.
And, if you haven’t “served” in the military, you can’t talk about war.
Well, Skippy Von Libtard, I served too, can I talk about war and military matters now?
1st Btl. 26th Marines, on this day. ➜ http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?...
A$$hat!
Not Over.
ROFLMAO!
For some reason, I haven't been able to post to someone else's comments for days now. Anyone else having that problem?
Not Over.
No No he meant Arcane.
My guess is our Rick Taylor is a warlock and as we speak we are all under magical assault.
Too bad for us Harry Potter is British right…..
Seriously though Mr Taylor's post is a clear example of someone with Plato's Chosen Syndrome. He sits in England ignoring the warnings of Daniel Hannan while his country goes bankrupt safe in the knowledge that he is better than those rubes over in the US. Why can't we all just see that they are all better than the rest of us. They tell us this is so what more proof do you need. Just sit back and listen to the Music they have selected for us all. Us ignorant little people need Guardians like Rick Taylor to tell us how to live, doncha know…….
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? = Juvenal
Mission Impossible over 9000, Sean Penn saves the world.
How many millions of innocent unborn babies were killed by left wing hypocrites like yourself over the years ? Far ,far more than died in IRAQ.
A lot of liberal "Leaders" never met a dictator they didn't love. Babies are more of a threat, being that most liberals are infant in nature.
If Biden can tell everyone were his "secret bunker" is, surely we can release this bit of info.
Classicfilm, you are a gentleman (or woman) and a scholar. Well played!
ToddM
The particular troll is not relevant to this discussion or perhaps to life in general but the "chickenhawk" argument merits some comment. I have not served in the military but my father has (20 years air force). According to this argument since I have not served I have no right to speak my mind in support of policies that protect this country or in support of the mission of the troops that are carrying out these policies.
Given these rules then no one but military members can support the war. The problem is that leaves only veterans no longer in service because the people in the military must keep quiet as they are fighting the war. In this way they can go out and lie and demean our mission, the polticians who had to make the unfortunate decision and through subtlety the men and women out in the field and we are supposed to not answer because we never volunteered. It is a cynical fifth column attack designed to silence us (your supporters) and dispirit you (the service personnel and vets).
I refuse to play by those rules. Semper Fidelis is a military motto but you know it still isn't bad advice for we civilians to try to live by as well. Thank you all for your service.
"I was under the impression the hospitals and nurseries were not spared."
Taking the NY Times as gospel has that effect.
"Don't act like it was sugerplums and fairy tales over in Saddamland."
Perhaps he was listening to Sean Penn in "Team America":
"Last year I went to Iraq. Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles."
While I appreciate the irony Andrew, I am not sure I wanted to think about Sean Penn on this day.
While I appreciate the irony Andrew, I am not sure I wanted to think about Sean Penn on this day.
No, guess not. Happy Memorial Day.
I suppose that one had to join the military at just the right time to fight in a war in order to comment on patriotism and the like.
Using that logic, you could not make a comment on being gay unless you had been …… by another man.
Well you get the point.
Mr. Penn could best serve his nation by placing an AMT Government against his temple and pulling the trigger.
*curtsies*
I'm female, kind sir. Thank you for your compliment.
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