Matt Damon Speaks Out On the Presidency
Maybe President Bush's daughters should go to Iraq?
Matt Damon and Robert De Niro are going to be appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball" speaking at the Hardball College Tour at George Mason University tomorrow night and a small piece of footage has popped up on YouTube in promotion of the appearance in which Damon makes a statement that I am sure is going to be misconstrued several different ways. However, the gist of his statement comes as he says, "If we all get together and decide we need to go to war then that needs to be shared by everybody, and if the President has daughters who are of age then maybe they should go too."
Check out the teaser below and check out another one here as he declares he would like Barak Obama to be the next President of the United States. I can't say I disagree with him there. If you want more on the Obama goodness check out the latest Newsweek featured article here. With that we end this week's real world discussion and journey back into movies by saying Damon will star in Universal's The Good Shepherd directed by De Niro opening December 22.
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The idea that EVERYONE should agree on whether or not to go to war is ludicrous. It would never happen, not even among politicians. Secondly, why should the President's daughters go to war? There is not a draft and you don't make someone's children go to war just because their father is the President. Yes, other people's children do go to war but that is because they signed up for the military and that is their job. The truth of the matter is most of the soldiers are in full support of the war and MANY of them have expressed outrage over what the media and liberal politicians have said about the war, wanting them to pull out of Iraq and let it go to hell. Hollywood needs to keep it's mouth shut about the war and their political views. The fact of the matter is they know less than the average person about what is really going on because they are too busy making movies and going to premiers and stuff like that, what makes them think they can tell the general public how things should be. They think that just because they are famous it gives them a licence to express their opinions about things which they know little about and then people might go "hey if Matt Damon thinks this than it must be true." Hollywood needs to stick to making movies.
A last note, the notion that people join the military for better pay is ridiculous. I've never met anyone, anywhere that joined the military or ROTC program for financial reasons. There is not a class of people who do this as Matt Damon so ignorantly proclaims (and tries to get others to believe), people join the military because they believe in the cause, and record numbers of them are re-enlisting. Why are they re-enlisting? for financial reasons? no, because they believe in the cause.
I think Damon's point, which is a very valid one, is that is very easy for someone with wealth and little worry that their children would ever be involved in a war to promote the order for war. There is some talk of instituting a draft that all clases, poor, middle and upper and the really upper, would be subject to and many believe instituting this draft would prevent less military action. It's the fail safe approach. It's not unlike the issue of nuclear war. If everyone is subject to get hurt, there is less of a chance we will launch any a-bombs on our own. I think this would actually work, but I'm against it because it's way too drastic. I think the approach is nuts, but the point is legitimate.
Nobody joins the army to get rich, but it is foolish to think many people do not use the army to escape their low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. There is a reason the armed forces help pay for colleges, they know exactly who they are marketing to. This is not, of course, the bulk of the armed forces population, but without the great perks the armed forces provide, i sincerely doubt the number of re-enlistments would be so high. That isnt to say there would not be re-enlistments, there is a significant portion of americans that want to serve their country, but a good number would be less inclined if they see their country sending them to wars under fictitious causes and less benefits.