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The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is excellent and ought to be up for Best Actor for both the leads. It is gripping and difficult to watch at times, also heartbreaking. It is awful what the Iraq war is doing to Iraqis and to soldiers. I highly recommend it. Here is the Yahoo summary.
In the summer of 2004, Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge of Bravo Company are at the volatile center of the war, part of a small counterforce specifically trained to handle the homemade bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), that account for more than half of American hostile deaths and have killed thousands of Iraqis. A high-pressure, high-stakes assignment, the job leaves no room for mistakes, as they learn when they lose their team leader on a mission. When Staff Sergeant William James takes over the team, Sanborn and Eldridge are shocked by what seems like his reckless disregard for military protocol and basic safety measures. And yet, in the fog of war, appearances are never reliable for long. Is James really a swaggering cowboy who lives for peak experiences and the moments when the margin of error is zero - or is he a consummate professional who has honed his esoteric craft to high-wire precision? As the fiery chaos of Baghdad swirls around them, the men struggle to understand and contain their new leader long enough for them to make it home. They have only 38 days left in their tour of Iraq, but with each new mission comes another deadly encounter, and as James blurs the line between bravery and bravado, it seems only a matter of time before disaster will strike.
The Hurt Locker and more
asw — Sun, 09/13/2009 - 13:39We live in an era where no one has a monopoly on the threat of nuclear war. What's worse, the US has been playing the role of the World's Cop since the end of WWII and now has been found out to be a weak knee enforcer. Instead of setting standards of behavior for nations we find ourselves instead of the role of enforcer and containment to that of one appeaser. In the movie I have to believe of character of Sergeant William James has that rare combination of extraordinary skill but also the confidence and the commitment to use it to save lives in the greater good. He has sacrificed his personal family life as well to the saving of lives in this horrible conflict.
The solution is rather simple:
1) Institute a draft in the guise of a National service act. Not everyone called to serve will pull military duty bit no more will we have a Nation of people that grow up and live in this country without a commitment to keeping it safe and doing some civil duty . But if all citizens are at risk of war maybe the politicians will be less likely to use them as cannon and IED fodder for the industrial military war complex. We will use our assets to protect real and current present dangers, and use our technology of banking, food ,commerce, and yes nuclear deterrent to isolate, contain, and bankrupt rogue country economies.
2) When we make a statement to contain a rogue Nation, do that. With the threat of total annihilation of there military assets by any measure. Then follow up. As a World population we can not tolerate despots in the world holding whole countries as hostages.
3) Finally there needs to be an end of religion in governing people. Both Christianity and Islam are extremes in belief and leave no tolerance for the salvation of the non believer. Islam especially is dedicated to violence and intolerance of opposing views. All of these dogmatic extremes do little to bring people together. How dare anyone tell me what I should or should not believe, and threaten my life, or liberty because of it. Where I differ from the mainstream, is why are we sending bright children into harms way to be used as fodder for an IED when we have the ability to wipe this scourge of the map of the Earth ? If we are not willing to use the technology we have, then why are we playing the guerrilla war pasty of these fanatics. The outright ban of religion in politics, will have to be a goal. There will be no " United Nations" under any religion.
This movie just brought up all these latent thoughts.
AL