The Sword is Mightier than the Penn

The Sword is Mightier than the Penn - Jay Reding notes Sean Penn's return to Iraq - and it's not what you'd think.

Penn is quoted saying:

For Iraqis, there was no pro-war or anti-war movement last spring when the United States invaded their country. That, in their view, was a predominantly Western debate. They're used to war; they're used to gunshots. What's new is this tiny seed and taste of freedom. It is a compelling experience to have been in Baghdad just one year ago, where not a single Iraqi expressed to me opinions outside Baathist party lines, and just one year later, when so many express their opinions and so many opinions compete for attention. Where the debate is similar to that in the United States is over the way in which the business of war will administer the opportunity for peace and freedom, and the reasonable expectation of Iraqi self-rule.

Reding says:

What's surprising about this piece is that it doesn't read like an anti-war polemic. If anything it reads like someone who is legitimately inquisitive about the situation in Baghdad and what the Iraqi people are thinking:

Jay's right.

Note to liberal bloggers (and Dennis Perrin) - there is nothing about "being a liberal" that precludes one from having a conscience, or having two working eyes and a functioning frontal lobe, for for that matter. Nothing about ones' politics enjoins one from intelligent comment about world events.

If Penn could do it, who knows - maybe Tim Robbins is next. Maybe even Nick Coleman...

...OK. That was just the beer talking. I'll stop now.

Posted by Mitch at January 15, 2004 01:10 AM