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The pretend peacemakers

By Ben-Peter Terpstra - posted Friday, 7 October 2005


Punk rockers are angry with George W. Bush. But Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong is very angry. “There is a war on terror which is basically a war on fear. It is playing with our fear,” maintains the BMW convertible-driving star.

Great detective work Billie! Now, I’ll run it by Sherlock Holmes and Madonna for clarification. Then, I’ll pass your thoughts onto Red China via express mail - stamped CONFIDENTIAL, of course!

So where does little Billie get his facts from? Well, the punk rocker is promoting Michael Moore’s book Dude Where’s My Country? “Yes, that’s clever!” I thought. “The fat man with the cap and camera has all the answers Billie.”

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I don’t know about you but it feels like the right time to teach the pot-friendly MTV crowd a history lesson.

With the Los Angeles Times and Michael Moore increasingly unwilling to publish positive stories on Iraq, you have to feel sorry for these celebrities. They’re only as open-minded as the newspapers and books they read.

In another related story, Madonna has shared her views about Iraq too. “Violence begets violence,” sniffed the millionairess. Meanwhile, discerning fans are wondering what the material girl thinks of America’s annihilation of Hitler’s Third Reich.

While celebrities are advancing pro-appeasement positions, those outside the entertainment industry see things differently. In Iraq, for example, the Kurds are experiencing a revival of their music traditions. To be sure, that’s good news!

There was a time when Kurdish artists were routinely persecuted for simply being Kurdish. The freedoms they enjoy today, however, were unimaginable in the old Iraq. In the “pre-quagmire days” one was shot in the head for singing the “wrong” songs.

The President hasn’t banned Madonna and Billie Joe Armstrong from touring, singing or acting like idiots for that matter. They’re perfectly free to pontificate. Indeed, Madonna has made a fortune by throwing herself at people - wildly, boisterously and always from the pro-appeasement camp.

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Not all celebrities, of course, spit on soldiers. There are some male artists who practice the second greatest commandment even if they do wear higher heels and more make-up than your mama or Madonna.

“My memory is not short,” explains Gene Simmons, the former KISS front man. “I’m alive because my mother is alive, and my mother is alive because America liberated her from the Nazi concentration camp.”

Are you listening Billie?

Thousands of Kurds are not alive because chemical weapons killed their pregnant mothers. And for some unfathomable reason, Hollywood was silent. The lesson of Iraq? We should have snubbed the UN and taken out Bagdad earlier.

As for peace, many artists appear very conflicted. Anti-war expert and actor, Russell Crowe maintains: “I am quite specifically anti-violence.” Yet a peace movement, I’m told, is only as good as its rich hippies.

One hotel-worker, of course, might beg to differ with Crowe’s “anti-violence” talks. Admittedly, I would too if an actor threw a phone in my face!

So is Russell Crowe Hollywood’s Mahatma Gandhi? I think not. For one thing, pacifists don’t throw phones. And frankly, I’m concerned. Someone needs to remind Crowe and his fellow “peaceniks” that anger is a choice.

Unfortunately, for the Kurds, Saddam Hussein was “quite specifically pro-violence.” So George W. Bush and Tony Blair were left with three choices:

  1. They could take him out!
  2. They could take him out!
  3. All of the above.

In order to reach a groovy position on the war, your average celebrity has to ascertain what’s in it for him or her. Therefore, elites come up with faux arguments that make them feel morally superior. Enter: The pretend peacemakers.

Hollywood hysterics are sorely troubled over the President’s “wicked” ways. All told, it hasn’t been a great period for Hollywood’s seers, prophets and political gigolos of late. Just look at those box office numbers! They need someone to crucify.

When stars tell us to bow to the UN, it’s time to start shopping for gas masks. But whether or not Hollywood hysterics are ignoring the rights of Rwandans (around two million dead), former Yugoslavians (half a million) or even Kurds (still counting the gassed corpses), one thing remains clear: their beloved organisation fails to halt the deaths of millions.

So, what kind of conservative President can think more strategically than a Hollywood star? Any conservative President. Hollywood stars can’t think. And the good news? Republicans care more about Kurds than Billie Joe Armstrong’s fan club.

Maybe celebrities are all hairdos and hormones. Madonna, for instance, also insists that the coalition should just abandon Iraq. “My feelings are - can we just all get out?” she snaps. A foreign policy based upon Madonna’s feelings? Now, that’s scary.

Still, Professor Niall Ferguson, a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford demurs. He candidly states: “The kind of violence that we could see in Iraq if we quit now, leaving full-scale civil war to rage, would dwarf all that has happened since 2003.”

Thankfully, I have a hunch that the British professor is right. In any case, we’d all be safer without the likes of Hollywood appeasers. As for Madonna, Little Billie Joe Armstrong and Russell Crowe, they should stick to yoga exercises!

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About the Author

Ben-Peter Terpstra has provided commentary for The Daily Caller (Washington D.C.), NewsReal Blog (Los Angeles), Quadrant (Sydney), and Menzies House (Adelaide).

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