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The pretend peacemakers

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


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!

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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.

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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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