For those expressing an interest, here's Sean Penn's interview with Larry King last night about this trip to Baghdad:
cnn.com
It's worth reading since he's tried to put some thought behind his positions and not just spouting a diatribe..
The one thing I found interesting was how he dodged any direct condemnation of Saddam's propagandists who asserted that Penn had declared Iraq "free" of WMD's...:
KING: Yes, we're seen in Baghdad, right?
OK, story of alleged quotes initially turned up, I think, on the "Drudge Report;" was picked up by the "New York Post," which was a strong critic of you, and that's a Murdoch paper.
"'Iraq Daily' claimed the American movie star Sean Penn has condemned the United States-British threats to wage war. 'Iraq Daily' also claimed Penn confirmed that Iraq is completely clear of weapons of mass destruction, and the United Nations must adopt a positive stance toward Iraq."
PENN: Well, see, being discredited, I feel in fantastic company with a lot of people.
Here's what I think about when I'm asked something like this. That as somebody who's had, you know, in my own world of movies and all of that stuff, a 20-year history of a front-row seat to accuracies and inaccuracies in the media -- and I've been very critical of the media at times on that level -- but I would take this opportunity to applaud a section of this that I had never seen this way, which is the war correspondents, the people on the ground in Baghdad, which was, for me, a very valuable source.
KING: Was this a bum rap? Did you not say anything that -- did you not say that Iraq is completely clear of weapons of mass destruction? How would you know?
PENN: You know, I think it's just a preposterous thing and I think there's an argument to be made that it's anti-American for them to abuse -- for those papers to abuse the press this way in a discrediting campaign.
But, again, you know, I'll give you an example of somebody who's a much better spokesman on that category, someone like Scott Ritter who, you know, has...
KING: Former inspector.
PENN: Former inspector, impeccable record as a major in the United States Marines, combat veteran. And, you know, to the man, the journalists in Baghdad seconded that about him, as did everyone that served under him.
But that's not been the case in Murdoch's media.
KING: You knew, though -- you're smart enough to know that Iraq would use your trip. I mean, you're not dumb.
PENN: Yes, but I saw potentially more potent abuse of my trip propaganda-wise in this country in the way that they capitalized on that thing. Yes, of course, I knew that. Of course, I didn't expect to be told the truth on everything. But I don't consider myself in Iraq -- in Iraqi propaganda, the significant player that they'd like to portray me to be.
They said that I said this, they said that I said that. I think it's meaningless horse (EXPLETIVE DELETED) -- excuse me -- you know, that is the way that they behave. But, you know, that's a price I was willing to pay.
He essentially blamed the US media for reporting Iraqi propaganda, which was probably based upon something he stated that they thought they could construe into an announcement of "compliance" related to WMDs.. Saddam's government issued the press report, not the West..
He was used by Iraq and he's smarting from that (hence, his silence since then).. But when he does speak out, he's loath to denounce Saddam's media for "setting him up" to be denounced and discredited by Western media..
Also, notice that he did not deny that he said any such thing... So it's quite possible that some Iraqi official maneuvered him into making such a statement...
After all, Penn went to Iraq with his mind already made up about what he wanted to believe. He WANTED to find an excuse, any excuse, for the US to avoid invading Iraq...
So he essentially went there with an inherent bias and unwillingness to view contrarian perspectives.
As for the Iraqi people he so applauds (which I also feel sorry for).. The question is whether any of these sanctions and deprivations the Iraqi people are suffereing would be in place were Saddam out of power?? I say no.. Thus, the imperative to remove Saddam and permit the Iraqi people to start to recover some semblance of peaceful existence.
Hawk |
