Persecution Watch

Georgetown University is our nation's oldest Catholic Jesuit University, founded in 1789 by Bishop John Carroll, and its faculty has chosen a bigotted policy. As a resident of the Great Ivory Tower of Academe, Georgetown will gladly that they provide a diverse, open-minded and all-embracing learning environment. They also just accepted $20 million from a Saudi Prince with which they will construct the Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. According to Georgetown's website, this center will be "addressing stereotypes of Islam and Muslims and issues and questions such as the clash of civilizations, and the compatibility of Islam and modern life - from democratization and pluralism to the status of women, minorities and human rights - and American foreign policy in the Muslim world." Personally, I suspect that the condemnation of America's policy in Iraq will be the cornerstone of this center. How much can they really say about the treatment of women? "In Islam, women are sheltered, controlled, treated as property and they prefer life that way." But why, you ask, is a Saudi prince spending $20 million to educate Americans?
The rest of the story explains exactly what Prince Alwaleed bought with his $20 million. Georgetown has announced the eviction of three Christian groups: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and Crossroads Campus Christian Fellowship. Georgetown has revoked their affiliations, removed them from the school's Web site and —according to Brit Hume — told them to leave campus. I searched the Georgetown website for all three of these groups and found a link to the Prince Alwaleed Center at the top of the page each time. The first two organizations have indeed been removed entirely from the Georgetown website. The third group had a link at the Site Index that did not work. For Christians at Georgetown, it's eviction time.

Amnesty for Thugs!

I'm sure you all saw the fight two weeks ago between the Miami Hurricanes and the Florida International Golden Panthers. I predict that you'll see more of the same if the kind of discipline now in play continues. Coach Coker came to Miami a few years ago, saying that he wanted to remove Miami's image of a thug school. Now, he has chosen to perpetuate that image.
First the facts: it was an extra point attempt by Miami and replays were unclear as to who threw the first punch. Both benches cleared and some players used helmets as clubs in the melee. Florida International has kicked two players off the team and suspended 16 indefinitely. Miami has given thirteen players community service assignments and given twelve of them a - get this - !!1-GAME SUSPENSION!! that they served against Duke last week. All of them are now eligible to play against Georgia Tech. That's not a punishment - it's a day off from a game against a push-over team.
Bear Bryant, who understood discipline and enforcement of rules, once suspended Joe Namath from the National Championship game because he broke a few team rules. Broadway Joe credited that action as the best thing ever to happen to him and went on to a highly successful professional career. Today, the Bear is dead, beyond all stretches of the imagination. The players who brawled against Florida International have suffered no meaningful discipline. They will go on to lives of thuggery and may get arrested for brawling off the field. One of them may go to the NFL and become the next TO - a hopeless Narcissus who has never done a thing wrong or suffered a consequence in his life. Rest in peace, Coach Bryant.

Al Qaeda Bill of Rights IV

Thanks to CNN, we now know that the freedom of maximum dissemination of propaganda is a sacred right reserved for terrorists. Recently, a terrorist sniper team from the Islamic Army of Iraq sent a propaganda video to CNN showing 10 sniper attacks and the network dutifully aired it, providing the platform that these Jihadists need to get their message out. Don't be fooled by the sniper's shout of "Allahu Akbar!" after he apparently hits an American soldier. Remember, it is only the insensitive Christians who portray Islam as a violent religion. In explaining their decision to spread the propaganda of forces that kill American soldiers, a CNN spokesman explained that they have a policy of giving the terrorists a fair shake. If they capture our men, they torture and behead them, but they deserve to have their voices heard on our airwaves.
CNN has long made no distinction between freely elected political leaders of democratic nations and dictators of totalitarian regimes, so why should we expect them to understand a difference between our soldiers who attempt to bring order to Iraq and the insurgents who maim, behead and burn Americans? This is the network whose freedoms I defended for a year in Iraq. Ain't that a kick in the head?

Al Qaeda Bill of Rights III

The Left's movement for an Al Qaeda Bill of Rights won its first victory this week thanks to Judge John Koeltl of New York, a Clinton appointee. Giving substantive strategic aid to terrorists is not a serious crime. Lynne Stewart, formerly the lawyer for the blind sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, had a meeting with her client and relayed a message for him to his terrorist colleagues in Egypt, the "Islamic Group." The message from the sheikh consisted of a call to his people to abandon the truce they had emplaced. Yet, inexplicably, the judge decided that her actions resulted in no innocent deaths. Although the prosecution asked for 30 years, the judge handed down a 28-month sentence. By the time my new baby can talk, Lynne Stewart will be back on the street. I can remember when Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, got a sentence of two years for trying to block abortion clinic entrances.
Add John Koeltl's name to Edward Cashman's as judges who need to be impeached. (Cashman sentenced a serial child molester to 60 days in Vermont, then changed the time to 3 years after a nationwide outcry.) The legacy of Michael Dukakis persists: the Left wants to give as little jail time as it possibly can to terrorists and first-degree murderers.

Death of another Clinton Lie

After years of repeating the lie that Hillary Rodham Clinton was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the Senator's campaign staff has admitted that it has always been a lie. Everyone with half a brain knew as much because Hillary was born in 1947, six years before Sir Edmund scaled Mount Everest and before he had even scaled his first mountain. This story began with an interview the First Lady had with Sir Edmund in 1995 and appeared in print in Bill Clinton's autobiography as well as the New York Times, which has repeated it multiple times, including seven days ago. In typical Clinton fashion, Hillary admits belatedly what everyone knew was fals and blames it on someone else. The "I was named after Edmund Hillary" tale now came from her mother, whom Mrs. Clinton alleges told her that Sir Edmund was her namesake in order to instill ambition in her, blah blah blah. Maybe some more subpoenaed documents will show up next.

A Must-Read Book

It is safe to assume that everyone who keeps track of the war or the anti-war movement has heard of Cindy Sheehan, the face of the anti-war movement ever since she camped out at Crawford, Texas in 2005. Her son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, so Maureen Dowd declared that Mrs. Sheehan had absolute moral authority to attack the Bush Administration. Casey Sheehan's best friend, Justin Johnson, was also killed six days apart from Casey. A new book, American Mourning: The Intimate Story of Two Families Joined by War, Torn by Beliefs by Catherine Moy and Melanie Morgan, tells the stories of the Sheehan and Johnson families in the months following their tragic losses. We all know what the Sheehans did. What did the Johnsons do?
Mr. Joe Johnson, Justin's father, joined the Army, where his other son, Joshua, already served. Mr. Johnson joined the infantry and managed to get posted as a HUMMV gunner, which is exactly the job that Justin was doing when he was killed. Need I say more? This mighty family is the epitome of what makes America great.
Moy and Morgan reveal another tidbit that is not surprising, but is rather disgraceful. Staffers for Michael Moore and John Kerry regularly approach gold star family members to offer them posts as spokesmen for the anti-war movement. In some instances, they even attend the funerals for the fallen heroes and make offers at the gravesite. I intend to read American Mourning at my nearest convenience.

Conservative Speech Repression

We've all seen developments in the last few years that smack of something other than enlightened attitudes toward dissention from Politically Correct speech. For all of the whining liberals do about Fascism in the Bush Administration, they cannot point to a single martyr whose speech has been muzzled by the government. For the record, the Dixie Chicks were never restrained, repressed, detained, questioned or otherwise interfered with by any government official, agency or entity of any kind, period. I've watched enough public service announcements on Armed Forces Network to know absolutely that the Country Music community is the #1 most patriotic community in America, bar none. Therefore, when the DCs said they were ashamed of President Bush, their listeners chose to stop buying Dixie Chicks CDs. Now, they have to schedule performances in Canada to make a tour worthwhile. The market can be tough that way, but the market is not the government.
Contrary to the liberal fantasy world, actual instances abound in which Conservative speech has been muzzled. USA Today hired Ann Coulter to write commentary on the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and fired her before the first day's speeches had begun. She has had pies thrown at her at various speaking engagements and policemen have had to remove unruly hecklers.
Currently, a college prep school in Seattle, Lakeside School, faces a lawsuit from two black teachers, Chance Sims and Novella Coleman, alleging racial discrimination. Part of their complaint consists of the school's invitation to Dinesh D'Souza, who was to speak on Iraq policy as part of a lecture series. At the time, the teachers organized a number of faculty and protested the invitation to Mr. D'Souza on the grounds that he held the wrong views on racial history. The school rescinded the invitation in response to their remonstrances, thus protecting Political Correctness from dissent.

Air America DOA

It took a little longer than we thought, but everyone knew the day would come that Air America, the network of liberal talk radio shows intended to challenge Rush Limbaugh's dominance, would die. There were at least three very good reasons for the Chapter 11 filing that Air America began late last week:
1) Lack of market. As Rush says tirelessly, the Left has a firm monopoly on opinion at CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS television, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, etc. ad nauseum. The nightly news on ABC, CBS and NBC also tilt Left, (especially CBS, which has used forged documents to affect the outcome of a presidential election) so there really was nothing new that the liberals could bring to radio. Therefore, Air America never even tried to survive using market forces, ie. never relied on ads for financial support. Instead, donors like George Soros purchased air time for the hosts to use.
2) Liberals don't listen to the radio. They watch TV and movies. Judging from the growth of the netroots, there are easily enough liberals in the country to support radio hosts if only they wanted to listen. Yet, for eighteen years, no liberal talk show host has even begun to approach the listenership of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz, and all of the smaller conservative hosts who have multiplied like kudzu in the last decade. Fundamentally, it must be true that liberals don't listen to the radio.
3) My favorite reason: lack of creativity. This is a plague on the Left, manifesting itself in a number of areas. I never listened to Air America, but the lack of creativity diagnosis is inescapable if one only considers the title of the featured show. Al Franken brought his views to light with "The O'Franken Factor," a highly unoriginal aping of Bill O'Reilly's highly successful TV show on Fox News.
For more examples of lack of creativity, consider last week. Three books by liberal authors appeared: Brainless, Soulless, and the creatively titled I Hate Ann Coulter. All three books attack Lady Ann, but the first two merely mimick her last book's title and the third one is even less creative. Fox News interviewed Susan Estrich about her contribution, Soulless, during news coverage at about 2:00 in the afternoon last Tuesday, I believe. Point of fact: Estrich's book will not likely be a bestseller. When was the last time you saw CNN interview Ann Coulter about any one of her five #1 Bestsellers?

Movie Review: An American in Paris ***

"Show Boat" was the musical that changed the structure of musicals by incorporating the plot and the songs closely. In contrast to the old-style musicals with very thin plot lines providing a bridge from one performance number to another, "Show Boat" used the songs to advance the plot and founded a new style for musicals. Periodically, musicals of both stripes will come round, but the style that uses the songs to help tell the story has proven the most successful by far. In 1951, the Academy gave its top prize as well as five other Oscars to “An American in Paris,” the prototypical old-style musical. Understand that term to mean a musical with plenty of singing and dancing but a plot as deep as the water in a drained sink. Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in her debut lit up the screen-shaped stage in a movie written by Allen Jay Lerner and using all Gershwin songs. As the orchestra at a restaurant plays, you can pick out tunes like "Someone to Watch Over Me" if you are a Gershwin fan, which I am. "An American In Paris" is the portrait of a painter who tap-dances very well, aided by his pianist friend (Oscar Levant) in post-WWII Paris. His dance with the children while singing "I Got Rhythm" is the highlight, I think, although I enjoy "’Swonderful" thoroughly as a song and the irony of the scene is charming. (The two performers do not realize that they are singing about the same girl, but the pianist knows.)
Plot: boy falls for girl, she belongs to her fiance whom she doesn't love but he sheltered her during WWII, boy finds out about the fiance, fiance finds out about him, she starts to leave but comes back and boy and girl go off into the sunset. I figure the Academy gave "An American in Paris" its top award because the members figured it was about time to give the prize to a musical. The following year, "Singin' in the Rain," which was better than "American" in every possible way, received extremely sparse nominations and no awards, not even for Jean Hagen's brilliant Supporting Actress-nominated performance as the actress with the shrill voice. No actors or actresses received nominations for "An American in Paris," which is not surprising because very little acting went on. It is still a fun movie to watch if you want to see several dance numbers including the last one that seems to go on forever. I am glad that this musical was written directly for the screen, so Gene Kelly did not ruin any good stage musicals, as he would later do with "Hello, Dolly." If you like Gene Kelly's and Leslie Caron's dancing, then "An American in Paris" may be for you. ***

The Truth About Civilian Deaths

You may have heard the latest total popycock to come out of a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study, claiming to show that 655,000 Iraqi civilians have died violent deaths in the last three years. That's a rate of 500 every day. To date, according to icasualties.org, the U.S. Armed Forces have lost 2,753 soldiers, including those who died in accidents. If you really want to believe that 300 Iraqis are dying for every one of our troops, please avoid all offers of real estate sales in Florida. Cancel that last sentence: if you believe the 655,000 number, please call me and I'll sell you some prime real estate in Florida with beach access and swimming pools nearby. The study has a margin of error ranging from 400,000 to 800,000, so they split the difference to come up with this answer.
Of course, it is critical that you get the other side of the story, so to view the Johns Hopkins study, go to http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.deaths/index.html At that site, you can see a story on the study and a link can open the study in pdf format. The story admits that the survey did not ask the people whether their dead relatives were insurgents. CNN, in its highly incurious manner, is reporting this junk as unbiased news and is witholding the margin of error from your view.
As you might recall, another survey came out from the same source, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health about two years ago, right after the Battle for Fallujah. This study claimed that 100,000 civilians had been killed since the invasion. Curiously, like the Johns Hopkins Survey, that study also had a mammoth margin of error - 30,000-170,000 - so they split the difference and came up with 100,000. How did that study arrive at its conclusion? They conducted surveys of three areas and TWO OF THE THREE AREAS WERE DIFFERENT PARTS OF FALLUJAH! Richard Miniter thoroughly debunks the 100,000 figure in his latest book Disinformation.
Like the 100,000 survey, this study was a household survey, based on interviews with fewer than 2,000 families and intended to include insurgents and terrorists and victims of crime as deaths ascribed to Coalition forces. I have lived with these people. They do not tell the truth as we understand "truth." I have been thoroughly exasperated with their communication style. If you ask an Iraqi a question expecting a "yes" answer, he will say, "yes," no matter what. He will not say "no," under any circumstances. If you are seeking information, he will give you information. It may be faulty, untrue, or made up on the spot, but he will give you the answers you are seeking. An Iraqi will never say, "I don't know." This study is ridiculous and barely deserves to be dignified with a response.

A Foley Surprise

I'm sure you've heard as much about the Foley Scandal as you ever wanted to hear, but something in the Drudge Report deserves a look. Jordan Edmund was the Congressional page who exchanged the disturbing AOL instant messages with Foley. Bear in mind, the emails that Speaker Hastert saw were not explicit or sexual in nature. The emails were excessively friendly, so Hastert told Foley to knock it off, but saw no need for further discipline. The reporter obtained the IM messages in August, but in his great concern for the children who might be at risk, he held the story until October Surprise Time. The IM postings contained the disgusting material over which Foley resigned. Drudge reports that two sources close to Edmund allege that the explicit IMs were a prank perpetrated by a few pages. The sources maintain that Jordan Edmund is not a homosexual, but he posed as one to get a few laughs at a Congressman's expense. This story seems extremely likely because boys at that age pull pranks like this one. Foley was known to attempt to befriend pages, inviting them for ice cream, etc., so to the pages, goading him into explicit chatter over IM would seem like a perfect comeuppance for a creep. I'm glad Foley has resigned, of course, especially if the new allegation of one page that he and Foley got intimate turns out to be true. Now, I'm sure the Democrats will start proposing resolutions favorable to the Boy Scouts for protecting their boys from Scoutmasters like Foley. (That last line: hat tip to William Kristol.)
We already know from the Plame affair that in the realm of the Drive-By Media, what constitutes scandalous behavior (perjury) for Republicans (Libby) is called saving the Constitution when Democrats (Clinton) do it. Just in case anyone has forgotten, twenty years ago a Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts named Gerry Studds seduced a male page in what amounted to statutory rape. When the House censured him, he turned his back to the Speaker in defiance. No one called for the Democratic Speaker's resignation or questioned "what did he know and when did he know it?" Studds got reelected six more times. Maybe I should make sure you got that last remark. STUDDS, A CONFESSED STATUTORY RAPIST, GOT REELECTED SIX MORE TIMES. Voters in Massachusetts are today voting for one killer of a young girl and one slanderer of American soldiers every six years at alternating intervals, so the citizens of Studds' district saw nothing amiss in the inclusion of a rapist. To think they're Americans too.

Al Qaeda Bill of Rights II

Here's announcing: we're two for two. The War on Islamo-Fascist Terrorists won one battle in the legislative branch last week, with the denial of habeas corpus to the terrorists and a second victory followed yesterday. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, the Carter appointee who ruled that warrantless wiretaps of foreign phone calls were unconstitutional. You've probably heard about her ruling often enough that I don't have to recap. The plaintiffs bringing their lawsuits explained in court that they communicate with terrorist-supporting areas like Pakistan, so they fear that their phone calls are being monitored. You've all read about the ruling, but one detail has probably not appeared on your TV screen: the government declined to present a defense before Judge Taylor. After motioning for dismissal of the case, government lawyers allowed the plaintiffs to make their case and saved the big guns for appeals courts. Now, they've had their day in appeals court and won without having to betray any classified information. We've defeated Article II of the Al Qaeda Bill of Rights: the right to communicate unchecked by telephone to friends in target nations. Hua.

The Hope/Berlin Award

Dear patriots,
This is old news, but this is a new blog and you probably didn't hear it the first time. The Hope/Berlin Award honors the most distinguished supporters of our troops. Its first namesake is Bob Hope, who spent much of his career entertaining troops in the Pacific Islands during World War II, in Korea, in Vietnam, in Europe and elsewhere. Hope's tours were usually affiliated with the United Service Organization (USO), a group founded in 1941 as a merging of the military morale and welfare services of the Salvation Army, YMCA, YWCA, the National Catholic Community Services, the National Travelers Aid Association, and the National Jewish Welfare Board.
The other half of the award is named for Irving Berlin, who founded and performed in the Soldiers' Show, writing several of their songs himself. The Soldiers' Show still operates worldwide and they performed for my unit at Fort Benning while I was in Basic Training.
Fittingly, the first Hope/Berlin Award honoree is also an actor. In 2005, he was visiting soldiers at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and someone introduced him to the Fisher House Foundation. The Fisher Houses give free lodging and pay for the airfare for the families of soldiers convalescing at Walter Reed and other Military and VA hospitals around the country. After visiting one Fisher House in San Antonio, he asked, "How much does one Fisher House cost?" When told, "Half a million dollars," Denzel Washington pulled out his checkbook on the spot and wrote a check for that amount. Denzel and Pauletta Washington joined the Board of Trustees for the Fisher House Foundation last year while I was in Iraq. They have been married for twenty-three years and have four children.
Cheers and deepest thanks to Denzel Washington, a great American and a benevolent patriot.

Rafael Peralta, Hero of the Week

As you know, the most difficult battle the Armed Forces have fought to date in Iraq was the battle for Fallujah in the late months of 2004. As they charged toward the city, Marines played, "Hells Bells," a song by AC/DC that many cadet units at North Georgia College have adopted as their PT theme music. The hero whose story I'll tell you today was a Marine's Marine who committed an act of courageous self-sacrifice for which several Marines received the Medal of Honor during World War II.
A native of Mexico, Rafael Peralta enlisted in the Marine Corps on the day after he received his green card and he took the oath of citizenship in his Marine uniform. On the wall in his room, he displayed three documents: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and his graduation certificate from Boot Camp. His comrades recall how he used to teach salsa dance steps in the barracks and paid close attention to standards of uniform wear and appearance. He even had his camouflage uniform pressed in preparation for mobilization to Iraq. More importantly, he took care of his men, giving career advice and picking friends up from the local watering hole when necessary. On November 15, 2004, he got another chance to take care of his Marines.
As platoon scout, Sergeant Peralta was usually in charge of securing an area and providing surveillance, but he volunteered frequently to assist squads with the additional hazardous duty of clearing houses in Fallujah. On the 15th, he was among the first inside the house when his five-man fire team found the main room deserted. As Peralta opened a door to another room, three insurgents opened fire and wounded him in the face and chest. He managed to dive to the side so that his buddies could return fire without hitting him. One insurgent rolled a fragmentation grenade into the room where Peralta lay. Without hesitating, he grabbed the grenade and pulled it under his body, shielding the other four Marines from the blast, but sacrificing his life. The Marines killed the insurgents and found a large weapons cache in the house. Sergeant Rafael Peralta, USMC received the Navy Cross posthumously. He was 25.
In a letter to his 14-year-old brother, Peralta wrote, "Be proud of me, bro...and be proud of being an American." You can see pictures of Sergeant Peralta and his family at this link: http://www.danzfamily.com/archives/2005/02/sgt_rafael_pera.php I find it striking sometimes how alike we all look in our uniforms. Next to our families in civilian clothes with casual posture, military men stand out like sore thumbs. The poise, dignity and bearing of military men still impresses me even though I have been one of them for eight years.

Movie Review: A Bridge Too Far ****

I spent Sunday afternoon two weeks ago working on my German skills by watching "A Bridge Too Far" on the 62nd anniversary of the largest airborne drop in history. September 17, is also the anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, so that date evidently lives in infamy for multiple reasons. Operation Market Garden today bedecks our history books as a sad defeat and a needless loss of good paratroopers. British General Montgomery's plan called for 35,000 paratroopers (the Market phase) to drop behind German lines and seize four stages of bridges over rivers in Holland. General Horrock's British XXX Armored Corps would drive 63 miles into German territory over the bridges, culminating with the crossing of the Rhine at the Arnhem bridge, which would give the Allies the keys to the Ruhr industrial region of Germany. The armored drive was the Garden phase of the operation. They were supposed to make it to Arnhem in two days.
In 1977, one of the greatest all-star casts ever assembled took on the roles of an excellent dramatization of Cornelius Ryan's book by the same title, and today "A Bridge Too Far" stands among the finest and most accurate of war movies. The sheer scope is stunning, as a fleet of C-47 skytrains fill the runway and the sky, many tugging gliders behind them. The American 101st Airborne took the Son bridges, but the demolition of one of them by German defenders delayed XXX Corps for 36 hours while their engineers built a Bailey pontoon bridge. Colonel Stout (Elliott Gould) and the Irish Guards commander (Michael Caine) have a classic exchange as the latter rides through a crowd of cheering Dutch citizens. Gould: "Have you got that Bailey crap ready?" Caine: "If by that you mean those glorious, precision-structured pontoon bridges that are the envy of the civilized world, then yes." The U.S. 82nd Airborne took the Grave bridges intact, but the Nijmegen bridge gave them a great deal of trouble. General Gavin (Ryan O'Neal) ordered a river assault in small boats led by Major Cook (Robert Redford) which succeeded in taking the far side of the bridge while tanks took the near side.
Meanwhile, General Urquhart (Sean Connery) who commanded the British 1st Airborne, found Arnhem occupied by the II SS Panzer Corps, which armor the Dutch Underground had warned about. Tragically, the British high command chose to ignore their warnings and the operation went forward. Colonel Frost's (Anthony Hopkins) portion of the 1st Airborne took one end of Arnhem bridge, held for seven days and the British captured the lot. Urquhart never reached the bridge. General Sosobowski (Gene Hackman) with his Polish Brigade, came to Urquhart's aid, but German troops shot his men up badly as they dropped in and again as they tried to cross the Rhine at night. After eight days of fighting, Urquhart and his 2,000 remaining troops (out of 10,000) slipped back across the Rhine to the Allied side. Their wounded the British paratroopers left in the hands of a Dutch doctor (Lawrence Olivier) who ran out of medical supplies and he arranged their surrender to the Germans. As POWs, they would have some chance of survival. With Arnhem bridge still in German hands, Market Garden achieved no major strategic objectives to balance against a tragic loss of life. Even so, Montgomery always maintained that the operation was 90% successful, notwithstanding the 8,000 British paratroopers who became casualties.
Is "A Bridge Too Far" an anti-war movie, as some critics maintain? On the whole, I don't think so, even though the screenwriter had General Sosobowski utter one clearly anti-war line. As I would not consider an accurate portrayal of heroism to be necessarily pro-war, I will not brand as anti-war a film which shows a defeat in all of the grim tragedy that it represented. I recommend "A Bridge Too Far" with **** and absolutely no reservations. The use of period tanks in large numbers is an enormous achievement and the film's score is one of my favorites.