The mainstream media will spend ten days losing their ever-loving minds blaming a Sarah Palin campaign map a killer never saw for that killer’s actions, but this news about a confessed terrorist admitting that a clip from Brian De Palma’s “Redacted” “prompted” him to murder two American airmen gets buried at the bottom of a Salt Lake City newspaper article:

Uka gave a teary confession as his Frankfurt state court trial opened in August, saying that the night before the attack he had seen a video on Facebook that purported to show American soldiers raping a teenage Muslim girl. It turned out to be a scene from the 2007 Brian De Palma anti-war film “Redacted,” taken out of context.

Uka told the court the video prompted him to do anything possible to prevent American soldiers from going to Afghanistan. Under German law, the court is still required to hear all evidence in the case, even though Uka has confessed.

The defendant had already killed two U.S. airmen when he turned his pistol on Brewer, a 23-year-old from Gray, Tennessee, who was on the bus waiting with others to be taken to nearby Ramstein Air Base to fly to Afghanistan.

Remember how, during the lead up to the release of the “Passion of the Christ,” the leftist media was on high alert waiting for synagogues and crosses to be burned? And yet, not a word in the national media about how this particular Hollywood film “prompted” the murder of two American servicemen.

Buried. Memory-holed. Never happened. Carry on.  

The Jawa Report has more on the two American heroes who stopped this Tinseltown-inspired Islamist.

Not so! The calendar might say 2012, but there’s another Iraq War-themed film heading our way.

“The Boys of Abu Ghraib,” starring Sara Paxton, Sean Astin and John Heard, sounds like a culmination of all the previous films out to undermine the war effort.

You won’t find a ton of information about the film online, nor does “Boys” seem to have a release date at the moment. Still, a news page for actor Garret Dillahunt, whose name doesn’t appear on the imdb.com page but is linked to the project via Variety, serves up a plot description that sounds like a greatest hits package of past anti-American flops:

All American Jack Farmer leaves behind a fulfilling life to serve his country in Iraq at the peak of the war on terrorism. Stationed at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, he is pushed to his limit as a daily bombardment of insurgent mortar attacks continually threaten his life. When an opportunity arises to work for the Military Police, Farmer jumps at it and finds himself behind the walls of the infamous Hard Site, a compound for the highest priority terrorists. He’s introduced to the world of military intelligence by Sergeant Tanner, whose harsh, and sometimes inhumane treatment of detainees raises doubts within Farmer about the Army’s procedure. Guided by a formidable moral conscience, Farmer treats the detainees well, even at the ridicule of his comrades, and befriends a wrongfully accused detainee named Ghazi, who becomes an unexpected confidant. When Ghazi is brought into military intelligence for interrogations, Farmer is forced to choose between his loyalty to his friend and his allegiance to his country. When his choice is proven wrong, the year’s worth of stress and trauma finally break him, driving him to commit an act he will forever regret.

Here’s a shorter synopsis at the film’s Facebook page:

An American soldier deployed at Abu Ghraib finds himself behind the walls of the infamous Hard Site where he develops a secret friendship with an Iraqi detainee.

Hollywood can make as many anti-American films as it wishes. The industry simply has to accept the fact that the audience for them could very well fit in a phone booth with plenty of room left for a stressed-out Clark Kent.

The arguments typically end up more theoretical than reality based. In one famous instance, the 1994 Oliver Stone film “Natural Born Killers” supposedly inspired a young couple to kill a person and leave another paralyzed.

More recently, celebrities like Elizabeth Banks, Roger Ebert, Patton Oswalt and Michael Moore twisted the blame game for partisan reasons, using their Twitter accounts to accuse Sarah Palin of inspiring the Tucson shooter without a shred of evidence.

Now, we have a direct tie between an anti-war film and the murder of two U.S. soldiers. So … will the media cover the story? Will it change how the film industry treats the subject matter? And will Miss Banks and co. rush to Tweet their condemnation of the movie in question?”

Yes, I’m being rhetorical on all three fronts, but let’s plow on all the same.

“Redacted” by Brian de Palma (“The Untouchables,” “Scarface”) cast U.S. soldiers as racist, violent thugs. The film flopped in spectacular fashion, earning $65,388 for its entire theatrical run. Apparently, audiences weren’t too keen on seeing the men and women of the Armed Forces smeared.

But “Redacted” impacted Arid Uka, a Balkan Muslim who saw the film and went on to kill two U.S. Air Force servicemen in March. Uka told a judge this week he was inspired by “the movie’s graphic depiction of U.S. soldiers raping a girl in Iraq,” says The Daily Caller citing a BBC report.

The men killed were Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, age 25, and Airman 1st Class Zachary Cuddeback, aged 21.

The Daily Caller (full disclosure – I freelance for the publication) not only reported on the situation today but reached out to “Redacted” producer Jason Kliot for comment. What Kliot says is both stunning in its shallowness and so nakedly partisan even Ed Schultz might balk at saying it.

“I’m terribly sorry to hear that, but I don’t understand how my movie would impel anyone to commit murder,” he said. “I don’t see how people would be made to commit acts of violence [after watching “Redacted”], any more than they would for watching Fox News.”

Will de Palma be asked to comment by the press? How about Mark Cuban, who also helped produce the film?

Ultimately, the price of having artistic freedom means writers and directors can say what they want to say via film, television and music. But it sure would help if those same artists gave serious thought to the ramifications of their content, especially material specifically designed to impugn a population.

John Rosenthal at Pajamas Media:

As reported here on Pajamas Media, Arid Uka, who shot and killed two American servicemen at Frankfurt Airport on Wednesday, has told German police that he was motivated in part by a video that he saw showing American soldiers “plundering a house and raping a girl” in Afghanistan. According to Germany’s deputy Attorney General Rainer Griesbaum, Uka is supposed to have viewed the video on YouTube.

An Islamist propaganda video roughly matching Uka’s description is in fact to be found on YouTube. On November 20, 2010, a German-language YouTube user going by the name “24jasmina” uploaded the video under the title “American Soldiers Rape our Sisters! Awake Oh Ummah.”

The video begins with roughly 80 seconds of footage apparently showing American soldiers marauding in a family’s home and raping a teenage girl. The footage appears to be filmed with a night vision camera and comes complete with vulgar and incriminating dialogue. At one point during the rape scene, gunfire can be heard off-camera and then a soldier on camera says: “I f****** killed them all.”

The same footage can also be seen on YouTube under the English-language title “Footage of Abeer Qassim.” The description specifies “rape footage of Abeer Qassim.” Unlike the German-language YouTube page, however, the English-language page indicates that the footage comes from the Brian De Palma film Redacted. In addition to the rape scene, the propaganda video on the German-language YouTube page contains three further scenes from Redacted.

Read full article here.

So when I saw the previews for the new film “Brothers,” I was doubly annoyed. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred in the egregiously offensive anti-American film “Rendition” (2007), as well as fellow liberal loudmouth Natalie Portman in addition to Tobey Maguire, “Brothers” had a trailer that seemed to scream out the entire plot: A soldier (played by Maguire) was presumably killed in battle in Afghanistan, which lead to an affair between his widow (Portman) and ne’er-do-well brother (Gyllenhaal) as the brother steps up to help her and her children recover from their loss.

The affair is then disrupted by the fact that Maguire is alive after all, his return heralded in the ads by horror-movie music that makes it look like the entire rest of the movie will center on him being a psychopathic animal, ultimately having a showdown with police in which he screams, “Shoot me!”

Yep, it looked like Hollywood had come back to kick our troops in the teeth again, following the 2007 onslaught of films like “In the Valley of Elah,” “Rendition” and “Redacted” that portrayed our soldiers and CIA officials in the worst possible light imaginable. All three of those films failed miserably, with “Rendition” earning a laughable $9.7 million despite the presence of Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon and Alan Arkin – a box office performance that helped kill its own studio, New Line. The others did even worse business.

Meanwhile a fourth war-themed film, “The Kingdom,” took a more centrist tack and left audiences rooting for the Americans to fight their way out of a deadly situation in Saudi Arabia, even as the Americans’ presence was depicted as morally questionable on some levels.  Interestingly, “The Kingdom” was the only film of that group that could be remotely considered a financial success, earning about $50 million before scoring nicely on DVD.  The difference, in my opinion: Shockingly, Americans like to cheer rather than jeer their own forces in war films and don’t find it entertaining to see their country and its ideals trashed while having a night out at the movies.

But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by “Brothers.” It’s a much better and richer film than its advertising makes it out to be, which is perhaps a result of its complex themes and plotting. It’s not anti-American, anti-troop, or anti-family – but to explain how or why would require giving away vital and late-blooming plot threads.

What I can reveal about “Brothers” is that it deals with heavy themes that are affecting families nationwide on a daily basis. Heroic men and women are stepping up and facing their marching orders every day, heading into two war zones that unfortunately have incredibly devious enemy forces and vast uncharted terrain. It is fact as well that the stresses involved in battling terrorists who employ guerrilla warfare tactics rather than any form of honor is resulting in large numbers of soldiers dealing with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Tobey Maguire’s character is one of those unfortunate souls driven over the edge of sanity by what he sees in Afghanistan. The key point here in defending this film against the other prior Hollywood dreck is that this film unequivocally shows Maguire as a man in charge of a squad and does so with devotion and honor.

The evils shown or implied in this film are squarely planted on the shoulders of the Taliban forces who capture Maguire and one of his men after their helicopter crashes in the desert, leaving their superiors to unwittingly report them as dead. Maguire is compelled under absolutely shocking duress to commit an atrocity, but the film clearly shows it is a moment of madness, not relish, while ultimately offering him forgiveness and the restoration of his humanity.

And when Maguire is rescued alive and returned home, the slow-burning tension that does in fact lead to the advertised police showdown is portrayed with understanding, restraint and respect for what he went through. Gyllenhaal’s sarcastic, layabout brother transforms from mocking the war and Maguire’s commitment to the military to an honorable man himself. Portman is as devoted a wife after Maguire’s (presumed) death as she was in his life.

Based on a 2004 Danish film called “Brodre” and written by David Benioff, who also plumbed the horrors of Islamic extremism as part of the plot in his adaptation of “The Kite Runner,” “Brothers” offers a sympathetic view of a family torn by war and its heart-rending side effects. Directed by Jim Sheridan, the Irish native whose 2003 masterpiece “In America” offered a highly personal tribute to his adopted homeland and stands as one of the decade’s most underrated films, the movie offers a genuine catharsis of the mixed emotions millions of Americans feel eight years and two presidents into wars with no end in sight.

It’s a bit of tough medicine at times, but it ultimately works as a reminder that family ties are often the strongest connections we have. “Brothers” offers one big step towards respect and understanding for our troops.  It’s one Hollywood film that deserves notice and a little bit of praise.

But who does the snob Sheridan choose to blame in advance should his war-themed film flop? Not his own bonehead decision to jump into a genre with a 100% failure rate, not the investors who dove in with him … no, he blames We The American People: 

Midway through a conversation with director Jim Sheridan about his latest film, “Brothers,” he abruptly asks, “Do you think anybody will go see this movie?”

I say what I think he wants to hear – that a cast led by Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal is sure to draw people. But we both know that movies that so much as touch on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned out to be tough sells. …

“I think the American people just don’t think there is a war on, so why should they have to go to a movie about something that doesn’t exist? Their state of denial is hard to overcome,” Sheridan said.

Unbelievable.

The Leftist Hollywood Playbook:

1. Make movie no one wants to see.
2. Insult audience prior to flop.
3. Blame audience after flop.
4. Receive ”brave” tag by fawning entertainment media.
5. Position on Hollywood cocktail party circuit remains firmly in place.

But as is always the case with a Hollywoodist, you can take Sheridan at his word and still come to the same conclusion: If you’re a director who wants to make a profit – a film people will want to see — and you believe Americans are in denial over the war — why spend $25 million on a war-themed film?

Predicting what will hit and miss at the box office is a fool’s game. Maybe “Brothers” will be the genre’s outlier, who knows. But how tired and played does this description from the original Danish version of “Brothers” sound:

Then Michael comes home with a full-blown case of post-traumatic stress disorder…

The trailer tells the rest of the story.

Am I the only one who eagerly awaits the $25 million film — a serious drama like “Brothers” – where the screwed-up brother returns from a tour of duty transformed into a responsible, resourceful and mature man ready to take his place in the world? That would not only be an inspiring and more accurate story worthy of the brave men and women who serve our country … it would finally be a fresh idea from an industry drowning in their own leftist cliches.

George Clooney in 2005’s  Syriana

Meanwhile the national discussion has segued to our own collective insanity, political correctness, which we are now discovering paved the very way for the massacre. It is this cultural and mental straightjacket that forced a U.S. Army general to say diversity is more important than losing American lives; that compelled our Homeland Security Secretary to reassure the Arab world that we’re doing everything we can to protect against a mythical Muslim backlash; that prevented people from speaking out about red flags that could have saved the lives of everyone murdered at Ft. Hood; and that prevents our officials from even naming the enemy. No such ailment afflicts the jihadists, however, who are celebrating Hasan as a hero, who have no problem acknowledging his ideological intent, and who recognize our political correctness as a self-inflicted fatal wound. Unlike our leaders and media elites, they don’t sap their wartime focus with hand-wringing and navel-gazing.

Also unlike us, they have no problem asserting their values in the war’s crucial cultural front, either, a theater of operations where we are weakest. A burgeoning Arab film industry, for example, in partnership with Hollywood, is set to make unapologetic and positive cinematic portrayals of Islam as important an export as oil. Abu Dhabi is investing $1 billion in movie productions over the next few years. Crash and In the Valley of Elah screenwriter Paul Haggis recently taught a screenwriting master class in Dubai to fifty promising and “socially and politically astute” writers. A Qatari media company is pairing with Lord of the Rings producer Barrie Osborne on a $150 million biopic of the Muslim prophet Mohammed – “a profound genius,” says Osborne, ”who founded a religion whose name in Islam signifies peace and reconciliation. This is what our film will aspire to do.”

Yusuf Al-Qaradawi

Very high-minded, if misinformed. But what’s wrong, you ask, with such multicultural bridge-building in this time of conflict between Islam and the West? Well, here’s an eyebrow-raiser for you about the Mohammed biopic: its “technical consultant” is Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the vastly influential spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni movement whose aim is the imposition of Sharia worldwide and “the destruction of Western civilization from within.” Al-Qaradawi has issued fatwas in support of suicide bombings in Israel, attacks on coalition soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the execution of Jews and gays. With him guiding the project, it’s starting to sound less like an effort to promote ”peace and reconciliation” and more like a propagandistic Trojan horse. Certainly not every film in the forthcoming cinematic wave out of the Middle East will have a dark design; but do not doubt that the Islamists recognize the cultural impact of cinema, or that the seemingly benign partnership is useful to their agenda.

And does the cultural exchange run both ways? Is Hollywood equally as eager to export Western values and a positive portrayal of America? I think we all know the answer to that. And why should we expect otherwise? For decades Americans have been conditioned and intimidated by political correctness, and indoctrinated by its handmaiden multiculturalism, to believe that all cultural values and practices are equally valid – except Western culture, which we’re taught is the domain of white male imperialists, racists, and slavers. And Hollywood continues to be at the forefront of the dissemination of that world view, too often denigrating America and whitewashing radical Islam.

 Hollywood may be out of touch with the “flyover” Americans between L.A. and New York, resulting in war-on-terror box office flops like Rendition and Lions for Lambs, but don’t underestimate the influence of its persistently blame-America-first propaganda on young audiences, on coastal elites, and on those countries that hungrily absorb the culture we export. Every time Hollywood makes a Syriana, which has been used as a recruitment tool to radicalize young Muslims; or a Redacted, which has also been used to inflame Muslim opinion against the raping, murdering American occupiers; or a Body of Lies, whose opening quote – “Those to whom evil is done do evil in return” – asserts that Islamic terrorism is just America’s chickens coming home to roost; or a Flightplan, in which you are manipulated into suspecting that the Muslims aboard an airplane are terrorists (Hitchcockian twist: they’re not!); every time Hollywood makes such thinly-veiled agitprop, the PC message is reinforced here and abroad that we are the bad guys, that America’s geopolitical meddling, not global jihad, is the genesis of Islamic terrorism. And therefore we can only end the Big Overseas Misunderstanding, or however President Obama is euphemizing the war on terror these days, by groveling and making amends – which is indeed his strategy for resolving it (resolving, not winning – remember, he’s not comfortable with the word victory).

Our President, who considers it his duty to combat “negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear,” is openly pursuing a globalist future in which America abdicates as a superpower. Leftist Hollywood marches in lockstep with that post-American agenda (“It’s an Obama world,” said the director of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, a movie scrupulously scrubbed of pro-American symbolism and real-world enemies – like jihadists). This subversive alliance is a prescription for cultural implosion, and an ascendant Islam is positioning itself to fill the void.

One-way multiculturalism in England

Think this is all alarmist, Islamophobic nonsense? It could never happen here, you say? Well it won’t if we do something about it. But if you want to see what a country looks like that has been gutted by multiculturalism, political correctness, and tolerance of the intolerant, and yet which continues to think “it can’t happen here,” see what has become of England. A hundred years ago the sun did not set on its empire; more recently it still stood tall under Churchill and then Thatcher. Now, harboring radical imams and embracing Sharia, it is teetering on the brink of cultural – and even literal – civil war with an unassimilated, radicalized Muslim population that is aggressively uni-cultural. Who could have imagined that this would be England’s future? Only the Islamists could. Back on our shores, Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs believes that the maddeningly tentative official response to the Ft. Hood assault is indicative not just of political correctness, but of de facto Sharia, and that we are already ”witnessing an Islamized America.”

The PC multiculturalist agenda, which Hollywood has often taken the lead in pushing, is a cancer that kills people and corrodes countries. It is the insidious source of all our misplaced “Why do they hate us?” agonizing. Not only is it undermining us in this clash of civilization versus barbarism, but it could prove to be the single most critical factor that will result in America’s defeat. But a Hollywood that unashamedly celebrates the American values that this country and the world hunger for can also take the lead in reversing that agenda’s damage; indeed, I believe such a cinematic wave is coming – but that’s a topic for another day.

* The media report thirteen dead, but one of his victims was three months pregnant, which in my book raises the count to fourteen.

Their big message: military films aren’t working. The country is weary and doesn’t want war films as entertainment. Rather, they say, the good citizens of our nation want to escape with the fictional heroes in movies such as “Transformers,” “X-Men,” and “Spider-Man.” 

Military movies may not be working because Hollywood presently refuses to capitalize on the real life heroes in combat everyday. Everyone loves a good hero and for Hollywood to embrace the notion that there might be a valorous man or woman worthy of a feature film may lend creditability to the cause for which they are fighting. And we can’t have that. 

Instead, their latest war films are partisan propaganda as opposed to realistic and balanced. Somewhere between the screenplay and the final edit group therapy takes place and movie houses release message films as opposed to realistic action movies. 

Take for example Lions for Lambs and Redacted. 

In Lions for Lambs, two students, the ‘Lambs,’ follow the guidance of a professor to make a difference in the world so they enlist in the Army, only to be left stranded by their chain of command on an Afghan mountaintop as the Taliban execute them. The message? Don’t be a fool and enlist. You will be abandoned. The movie is noticeably absent any true hero as Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep all pontificate through a collective diatribe. The failing here is that millions of servicemen and women have fought in these wars and their families know that they are true heroes. So a movie that paints their loved ones as misguided sheep rings hollow. 

Redacted is worse and more blunt. It sensationalizes a violent criminal act by a small group of Soldiers. Why did De Palma choose the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl as the focus of his movie, using the tagline, “Truth is the First Casualty of War?” It was a heinous, violent crime, but in no way does De Palma’s movie capture the essence of these wars or the spirit of the American fighting men and women. Again, no heroes, only villains, who happen to be American service personnel. 

It seems to me that the invasion of Iraq has been a watershed. Instead of gems such as Blackhawk Down, We Were Soldiers, Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, post-Iraq we get political pitch pieces. Hollywood is venting its displeasure with the previous administration’s foreign policy through its films. Yet moviegoers are not so easily fooled and pan the movies that portray the military as bloodthirsty goons or ill-informed morons. 

If really is that simple, and Tyler’s lyrics have it right. We are holding out for a hero-the right kind of hero. We need Hollywood to capture the heroism of our troops. The American people know that their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and fathers and mothers are carrying this nation’s rucksack superbly in combat. And everyday there are heroes fighting to deny our enemies the ability to attack our homeland. 

One short example takes me back to January 2007 where a young sergeant displayed the everyday valor of American fighting personnel. 

Tyler’s lyrics were the furthest thing from my mind as my UH-60 Blackhawk’s composite rotor blades cut through the thin air of the Afghan Hindu Kush Mountains. 

“Blackhawk Down”

For two weeks I had been trying to fly from Bagram Air Base, where the joint task force is headquartered, to a remote operating base near the Pakistan border called the Korengal Outpost. My team had been collecting ‘To Any Soldier” letters and boxes for weeks and the holidays were upon us. However, a sudden snowstorm prevented our movement on Christmas Eve and then again on New Year’s Eve. 

But January 5th was a crystal clear day, the winter sun low and bright in the blue sky, perfect for flying…and fighting. So we loaded the Blackhawk and departed early in the morning with the intent of circulating to several small outposts, checking on morale, and ensuring the troops had the equipment they needed, a routine part of senior leader battlefield movement in the 10th Mountain Division. 

As we approached Asadabad Base where we would refuel, the radio crackled with the excited chatter of troops in contact just one valley over. They needed air support quickly. I directed my Apache helicopter escort to provide that support and for my Blackhawk to provide cover as his wingman. After emptying all of their ammunition twice in support of the troops in contact, the aircraft returned, picked up my team and we cruised the remaining 15 minutes to the Korengal Oupost where I would link up with Captain Jim McKnight’s rifle company. 

As we approached for landing, PKM machine gun fire echoed from two or three directions. Jim McKnight was there to greet me as we disembarked, but it was clear that he had other priorities. Soon machinegun fire and rocket propelled grenades were raining down upon our exposed position. The Blackhawk alone took 8 rounds in its cargo door, where we had just been sitting, and the left engine caught on fire. The pilots powered up with the right engine, leaving their crew chief on the ground and yanking his communications cord from his crew helmet. 

As rocket propelled grenades begin to crisscross through the outpost like Roman candles, I told Captain McKnight, “Forget about me, go command your company.” Happy to be unburdened from the task of managing a general in his outpost, he got to work. Meanwhile, we hunkered down and returned fire. As we moved toward the command bunker, I caught out of the corner of my eye a Soldier running down to the command post. This Soldier was shot through his left arm, tying off his tourniquet with his teeth. 

As he wheeled into the bunker, he hooked a radio handset into his helmet strap with his good hand while his wounded arm was bleeding badly. Soon, it was apparent he was going into shock and that his arm was seriously damaged. He began convulsing and a medic approached him, saying, “I need to take a look at that.” 

“Get away from me,” the Sergeant said, bluntly, as he punched numbers into his mortar ballistic computer. The biggest weapon at this firebase was a 120mm mortar that, with the right calculus, could destroy the attackers in quick fashion. This sergeant’s mission was to perform that calculus with the aid of a ballistic computer and then relay the information to the gun crew. Conversely, if he got the math wrong, a misguided round could kill friendly troops or civilians. 

He had an important mission. 

As the sergeant began to shake from the onset of shock, the medic approached again, and a second time the sergeant refused medical care, this time employing an expletive to keep the intruder at bay. 

As enemy machine gun rounds punched through the plywood roof of the bunker and fell to the floor like a Colorado summertime hail storm, the medic approached a third time. Looking up from his ballistic computer the sergeant said, “You can work on me when we get first round down range.” 

That was his compromise, which of course was no compromise at all. This Soldier was going to perform his most vital mission until the last drop of his blood fell into the gathering pool at his feet. 

Finally, a few minutes later the mortar launched the first round, which was impressively accurate. Soon, the mortar crew was melting the tubes, pumping out high explosive, fin stabilized and deadly accurate rounds onto the enemy. 

His mission done, the sergeant pushed the ballistic computer across the table to his assistant, handed him the radio, turned to the medic, and said, “Now you can work on me.” 

While it’s not Paul Blart, Mall Cop, there is a good message for Americans in the young Sergeant’s sacrifice. His actions were truly heroic. And the amazing part of this Sergeant’s valor is what came next. 

I was privileged to pin on his Purple Heart (2nd Award), the following day in Bagram after we medically evacuated him out of the Korengal Outpost. The sergeant then was evacuated to Landstuhl, Germany and then finally to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he spent two months getting reconstructive surgery and healing from the gunshot wound. 

In the interim, the Secretary of Defense extended by 5 months his brigade combat team’s deployment in Afghanistan, making that brigade’s cumulative time deployed 17 months. As soon as this sergeant was released from Walter Reed Army Medical Center he had every right to go on convalescent leave and chill out. He’d earned that after 11 months of combat and a serious battle wound. 

Everyone but perhaps Hollywood knows how this story ends. Our hero scoffed at the notion of taking time off while his buddies were in the thick of it in Afghanistan. 

Of course, he was on the next airplane smoking to Bagram. 

So, we don’t need to hold out for our heroes. They’re there, right in front of us everyday. 

They are holding out for Hollywood’s enormous resources and talent to capture the right heroes doing the right things at the right time. And that’s a timeless story. It’s Hoosiers on the battlefield. Good men and women with solid values placed in difficult circumstances and producing unbelievable results. 

On our behalf. 

Message to Hollywood: Get to work. If you remove the political lens so that you can see the American heroes fighting the good fight, your only issue will be too many good screenplays and packed movie theaters. 

Believe it or not, the America I know is very proud of its men and women in uniform.

Almost 90% of Americans believe the war in Iraq is and was a waste. The Hollywood media feeds the public wasteful, depressing, and horribly fabricated stories. When did the U.S. military become the bad-guys? We are stereotyped “Generation Kill.” I guess that is all we do. All we do is go to Iraq, hunt innocents and slaughter them. I guess that is what I did for eight months while I was there.

I guess I really didn’t save Iraqi families from being tortured by foreign jihadis. I didn’t set up the first ever Iraqi elections. Or see my brothers blown up, shot, maimed, and killed. Getting attacked from Mosques and hospitals–and you know what?  We just took it, day after day we took it and we kept going. An IED blowing up underneath me each day.  We couldn’t fight back; we were ordered not to. No matter how much vengeful, pent up aggression I felt, or how much I wanted to kill, I didn’t act on it. We have a code, Rules of Engagement. “RULES,” rules that are followed.

But according to then Senator and now President Obama, all I did was air-raid villages and kill innocent civilians.  This is a video I will never forget:

People like Pat Dollard and Micheal Yon tell the true stories.

Please watch these clips and tell me if you buy into what is portrayed. Honestly, tell me what you believe.

HBO’s rendition–was this the way it went down according to Evan Wright’s book? Or is it HBO fantasy?

Or how about this from “In the Valley of Elah.”  In the start of the movie, he fixes the flag.

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> At the end of the movie, it portrays the soldiers doing horrible things (nothing good in Iraq–the entire film), it gives Tommy Lee Jones’ character the right to flip the flag at the end (the so called “international distress signal…come save our ass”).  Theme of movie—Iraq is unpatriotic and helpless. To me it means what we did over there is… unpatriotic.

And last my personal favorite, Brain De Palma’s rendition “Redacted.”  THIS SHIT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN OVER THERE.  IT IS COMPLETE fabricated bullshit. A bunch of soldiers standing around with no security. Nothing in this clip would ever happen. A wannabe gangster Sergeant talking about his three tours…? Yea right. And a PVT allowed to act that dumb? Ridiculous.

Thank you so much American media, special thanks to Hollywood. Our entire sacrifice was a complete waste. My friends died for nothing. We are exploited and lies are told. The truth is never reported. The good outweighs the bad. But you will never see it.

Click this link again.

Yours truly,

I guess this is just a bunch of lies too: