War, Inc. strikes a chord with soldiers and their families

[Etta Place]

Arianna Huffington
War, Inc: Cusack's Savage Satire Strikes a Chord with Soldiers and Their Families
Posted June 12, 2008 | 04:07 PM (EST)


"Whose top advisers are linked to war profiteers?" asks John Cusack in a new TV ad linking John McCain and George Bush ("Both...Bet you can't tell them apart"). The ad, produced by MoveOn.org, starts airing today and is already being passed around the Internet.

Cusack's righteous rage over the billions being pocketed in Iraq by companies like Blackwater, Halliburton, and Bechtel is the beating heart of his brilliant War Inc. The film, a corrosive, audaciously funny takedown of the Right's push toward privatized war, has become a surprise, grassroots-driven hit -- despite having almost no ad money behind it.

I saw the film before it was finished, and even before the final edit, the music, etc., I was overwhelmed by how it captured the insanity going on in Iraq. War Inc. has pulled off the near-impossible: it has a found a savage, reality-altering humor amidst the tragedy of Iraq.

It masterfully wields my favorite creative weapon: satire. It punches you in the gut, making you laugh, wince, and become outraged all at the same time. Naomi Klein rightly calls War, Inc. "one of those rare satires with the danger left in."

Political satire designed to confront the powers-that-be with painful truths and to produce not just laughs but change is rarely seen in today's multiplexes. And that's not surprising; it's a high-wire act few even dare to attempt. But when someone does and succeeds at it -- think Stanley Kubrick, Paddy Chayefsky, Joseph Heller, Billy Wilder -- the effect is indelible.

Lewis Lapham identified the satirist's project as "the crime of arson, meaning to set a torch of words to the hospitality tents of pompous and self-righteous cant." And that great satirical arsonist Mark Twain wrote that exposure to good satire made citizens less likely to be "shriveled into sheep."

The great satirists have always been passionate reformers challenging the status quo. "Sometimes," says Paul Krassner, whose satiric and radical journalism inspired Cusack and his co-creators, "humor is just a way of calling attention to the contradictions or the hypocrisy that's going on officially. ... That's the function of humor -- it can alter your reality." Which is exactly what War, Inc. does.

When in 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote the most famous work of political satire of all time, "A Modest Proposal," he was seeking to light a fire under the indifference toward the twin Irish crises of hunger and over-population. His proposal was to feed young children to hungry men. "I have been assured," he wrote, "that a young healthy child, well-nursed, is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout."

You can imagine the blowback from those who failed to grasp the satiric point Swift was trying to make. Similarly, the satire-challenged Right has tried to attack Cusack and War, Inc. as (all together now) unpatriotic and a slam on American troops. They've also gotten their knickers in a twist, outraged that someone would try to find humor in the death and suffering of U.S. soldiers.

But Cusack's targets are not our troops but private military contractors, war profiteers, and flag-waving politicians who, as Cusack puts it, support "keeping our troops in harm's way in Iraq but not the bipartisan G.I. bill of rights to support them when they return home." (And, yes, he's talking about you, Messrs Bush and McCain).

Indeed, since the film's release Cusack has received many moving emails and postings on his MySpace page from soldiers and military family members supporting the film and its message. Their missives run from disappointment to disillusionment and fury over being asked to serve and sacrifice while mercenaries are better paid -- and often better treated.

Among the emails:

From Sgt. Brent Sammann, an active-duty soldier in the US Army: Sgt. Brent Sammann, US Army
(Click for full-size image --
check out the two flags)

I'm a first-hand witness to the exploitation by KBR and other companies lending their services to the war effort -- services us soldiers are fully capable of doing ourselves.... The military is being overcharged by these companies on a regular basis. Also, the poor service and treatment we get from some of their employees who make three times as much as those of us serving our country that are not in it for the money but are trying to make the world a better place for everyone.


From SPC (P) Johnny Rhodes in 3/2 SCR Infantry based in Diyala, Iraq:


After being awake for 3 days I may be a little bit out of it, so excuse any rambling or incoherence on my part. Off the top of my head, I can easily say that KBR in particular is of no help here in my area of Iraq. They do, jobs soldiers could do, get paid way better for it, but the work is almost always substandard.... at any given time there are hordes of these guys tying up the phones and internet, cramming the chow hall, etc. Which makes the soldiers have to wait. And wait. And wait. They also paid way more than me, for a job, I could do with my eyes closed.

From Brenda Clampitt, of Baton Rouge, LA, the wife of a soldier stationed at Camp Adder in Tallil, Iraq:


[My husband] drives the trucks and Humvees and escorts the KBR around where they need to go. He doesn't understand why they get paid way more then he does when [he and his fellow soldiers] are the ones doing the protecting, and are the ones getting shot at and blown up. He has seen soldiers die in front of him; he has seen lives destroyed and the country torn apart. My husband would serve his country whether he got paid or not, that is just how he is. He loves his country and wants to protect it but he sees first hand what is going on over there and he doesn't like it.... I myself am sick and tired of this war. It is dragging on and on and it is all about the money. I am not anti war. But I am FOR everything your movie is about.


Today's lead editorial in the New York Times, titled "Interrogation for Profit," decries "one of the Bush administration's most blatant evasions of accountability in Iraq -- the outsourcing of war detainees' interrogation to mercenary private contractors" and calls on Congress to approve "measures to make war-zone contractors liable for criminal behavior." The editorial concludes: "The way out of the Iraq fiasco must include an end to the outsourced shadow armies."

This indictment has the same urgency of War Inc. Especially with John McCain reminding us that it's "not that important" to him when our troops come home.

Arianna Huffington: War, Inc: Cusack's Savage Satire Strikes a Chord with Soldiers and Their Families - Entertainment on The Huffington Post

[Frenchy]

Among the emails:

They're all Liberal plants!


I thought I would beat Judge and Frank to it!

[KEVWYO]

Originally Posted by Frenchy

They're all Liberal plants!


I thought I would beat Judge and Frank to it!

Somehow and someway they will think up something that will be par for them and the only reasonable response will be .

[Judge]

What - we don't need to "think up" something.... We're not the ones who keep promoting frauds like Jesse Mcbeth and what was the other dudes name?? All we have to do is give it some time and the truth arises - though ya'll may ignore it. As far as the troops attitudes - we see it - in their record reinlistment rate - in the pride they have in their jobs and in the faces of the Iraq people they are helping and freeing. It's not like Huffington will cover any of that.

It's the libs that have to keep lying and distoring the truth - as in lying about Bush lying....

It's the truth ya'll can't stand.

Originally Posted by KEVWYO

Somehow and someway they will think up something that will be par for them and the only reasonable response will be .

[FLSTFI Dave]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

Arianna Huffington: War, Inc: Cusack's Savage Satire Strikes a Chord with Soldiers and Their Families - Entertainment on The Huffington Post

Funny how the left calls Hanity, Rush, and such far right smear and hate mongers....

Then they use the Huffington post for their points, which is a far left smear and hate site, that is far more insulting a deragatory than what we can hear on the radio or news....

Originally Posted by Judge

What - we don't need to "think up" something.... We're not the ones who keep promoting frauds like Jesse Mcbeth and what was the other dudes name?? All we have to do is give it some time and the truth arises - though ya'll may ignore it. As far as the troops attitudes - we see it - in their record reinlistment rate - in the pride they have in their jobs and in the faces of the Iraq people they are helping and freeing. It's not like Huffington will cover any of that.

It's the libs that have to keep lying and distoring the truth - as in lying about Bush lying....

It's the truth ya'll can't stand.

McBeth...that was a good left wing smear job and lie

Retention rates are high in the Army and Marines, many voulenteering for a third or even fouth tour of Iraq, yet they refuse to report that.

Enlistment rates are also pretty dang good, considering we are at war, and it is all voulenteer. A friends son had a four month wait to enlist for Army infintry. Not some poor kid who had no other option, his parrents live on the lake in a 750K home.

[ZenMachine]

Enlistment rates are up, but the standards have also been lowered. People without high school education or GEDs, 42 years olds in the combat arms, people with mental illness history being accepted, not to mention reenlistment bonuses out the ying yang. Also just because soldiers reenlist doesn't mean they necessarily agree with the mission. I have buddies that are like the ones you mention on their third tour, I asked them why they are going back, and they feel a duty to the other people in their units and don't want to see their buddies redeployed without them.

[FLSTFI Dave]

re-enlistment bonus are nothing new. I got a 16K re enlistment bonus in 1985, I got a 20K re enlistment bonus in 89 and a third bonus of 20K in 93.

[Blunt]

If you don't Stand behind our Troops,
Please feel free to Stand in front of our Troops.

something you will never see a

politician

do is stand in front of them. stab them in the back like our present

commander

and thief but never lead from the front. when my father died 3 yrs ago we were told the best we could get due to budget cuts was 2 soldiers and a tape player for music. he had 3 purple hearts and a bronze star. they also cut his beni's at togus so he was no longer eligible for long term care. he had been shot in the head' lungs' wrist and foot plus shrapnel was still lodges in him. remember the current logic ( support the troops hide the vets )

[gsh341]

I can agree with the point being made about KBR. My unit had cooks and they never served a meal after KBR got going. Instead they drove trucks and worked in supply or manned guard towers.

[bigun]

Originally Posted by Blunt

If you don't Stand behind our Troops,
Please feel free to Stand in front of our Troops.




something you will never see a

politician

do is stand in front of them. stab them in the back like our present

commander

and thief but never lead from the front. when my father died 3 yrs ago we were told the best we could get due to budget cuts was 2 soldiers and a tape player for music. he had 3 purple hearts and a bronze star. they also cut his beni's at togus so he was no longer eligible for long term care. he had been shot in the head' lungs' wrist and foot plus shrapnel was still lodges in him. remember the current logic ( support the troops hide the vets )

Sad but true, The back log for VA care is getting longer, The VA is closing their inpatient hospitals quickly and quietly so they can claim that they dont have the capability to care for the seriously injured, mentaly unstable, or vets of past wars. We are going to see a huge uptick in the homeless population after all of the troops are pulled out of Iraq and turned loose on the streets and probably a upswing in crime rates as they struggle to survive. The VA I work for at one time was one of the largest mental health hospitals in the system, most of the PTSD and Alcohol/Drug abuse programs in the VA today started here and at our peak we had over 1200 inpatients, We are now down to less than 200 and will probably be shut down in the fall of next year. Iowa City had to turn away a homeless mentaly unstable veteran last winter because of a lack of bed space, he died under a bridge of exposure. Suicide among combat veterans continues to rise and the pencil pushers wont do anything about it.