This one just pisses me off...
The Monday Calendar section of the LA Times carries a Counterpunch article each week. It's kind of a guest editorial column... maybe it's simply a "letter of the week" kind of thing. In the April 28th edition, the Counterpunch article was titled "Don't forget Saddam's victims". It's by a writer named Jim Berkin.
The gist of his article is that Hollywood egos have been bruised by our quick victory in Iraq and the "liberation" of the Iraqi people. (I add the quotes here because I find the whole "liberation" thing a facetious argument--nobody made the point that we were out to liberate the Iraqi people until just before we got ready to invade.)
ANYWAY... He goes on to talk about Stephen Spielberg's Shoah project, which documents first-person accounts of Holocaust survivors. Berkin then suggests that Saddam's victims deserve the same. Now, I have no problem with that. I think the Shoah Project is a noble and (unfortunately, since we tend to have short memories) very necessary project. And a similar project to document the experiences of those who survived Saddam's tortures would serve an equally noble cause.
But then Mr. Berkin goes on to "nominate" (his phrase) Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen and Janeane Garofalo, among others, to go to Iraq and interview survivors of Saddam's prisons and torture chambers... apparently (judging from Mr. Berkin's tone), because these celebrities have had the temerity to speak out against this war without considering the innocent victims of Saddam's regime.
Aside from the arrogant narrow-mindedness of this attitude (from what I've read of Robbins', Sarandon's and Sheen's views on war with Iraq, they're all pretty well aware of the state of things), the real contemptible thing about Mr. Berkin's article is his trivializing Saddam Hussein's torture and terror, the suffering of these innocent Iraqi's that he says he's so concerned about, and even (in the whole guilt-by-association vein) the Shoah Project, just to make HIS own political statement--that, because he doesn't agree with Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, et al, he feels they need to be punished.
Very petty, Mr. Berkin. I'm sure the victims of Saddam's regime are overjoyed to hear of your concern for their plight.
The Monday Calendar section of the LA Times carries a Counterpunch article each week. It's kind of a guest editorial column... maybe it's simply a "letter of the week" kind of thing. In the April 28th edition, the Counterpunch article was titled "Don't forget Saddam's victims". It's by a writer named Jim Berkin.
The gist of his article is that Hollywood egos have been bruised by our quick victory in Iraq and the "liberation" of the Iraqi people. (I add the quotes here because I find the whole "liberation" thing a facetious argument--nobody made the point that we were out to liberate the Iraqi people until just before we got ready to invade.)
ANYWAY... He goes on to talk about Stephen Spielberg's Shoah project, which documents first-person accounts of Holocaust survivors. Berkin then suggests that Saddam's victims deserve the same. Now, I have no problem with that. I think the Shoah Project is a noble and (unfortunately, since we tend to have short memories) very necessary project. And a similar project to document the experiences of those who survived Saddam's tortures would serve an equally noble cause.
But then Mr. Berkin goes on to "nominate" (his phrase) Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen and Janeane Garofalo, among others, to go to Iraq and interview survivors of Saddam's prisons and torture chambers... apparently (judging from Mr. Berkin's tone), because these celebrities have had the temerity to speak out against this war without considering the innocent victims of Saddam's regime.
Aside from the arrogant narrow-mindedness of this attitude (from what I've read of Robbins', Sarandon's and Sheen's views on war with Iraq, they're all pretty well aware of the state of things), the real contemptible thing about Mr. Berkin's article is his trivializing Saddam Hussein's torture and terror, the suffering of these innocent Iraqi's that he says he's so concerned about, and even (in the whole guilt-by-association vein) the Shoah Project, just to make HIS own political statement--that, because he doesn't agree with Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, et al, he feels they need to be punished.
Very petty, Mr. Berkin. I'm sure the victims of Saddam's regime are overjoyed to hear of your concern for their plight.
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