You regulars might have notice a certain amount of erraticism (is that a real word?) around here recently, so, sorry, sorry, sorry but it was those bloody "events, dear boy, events" again. So now, having been 'awol' for a while, I have been forced to smooch around OPBs (Other People's Blogs) to seek grist for my mill and as always Waka Waka Waka (sole prop: Malcolm Pollack) always has something of interest and intelligence to read and thus I have stuck with my usual tactic of only nicking from the best!
Malcolm spotted that Piers Morgan had actually written something rather perceptive concerning the film American Sniper. The fact that it was in The Daily Mail, the Memsahib's paper-of-choice and which, therefore, I read daily, and that I had completely missed it gives you some idea of the harrassment I have suffered recently. Now I must confess - I seem to be doing nothing else these days! - that I have been rather rude about Mr. Morgan in the past, not for any particular reason but because everybody else is rude about him. My pal Richard once sent me a quote from another dislikeable man, Stephen Fry, who said: "I thought 'countryside' was the act of killing Piers Morgan." However, it is mostly my American e-pals who complain the hardest and loudest having, as they do, to suffer his TV programmes. To be fair to myself, I did once watch one of his 'sleb' interview shows and I thought - and wrote - at the time that I thought he handled it extremely well.
Anyway, here are a few of his comments on Clint-baby's latest movie:
Kyle was just told to go and do his job; to aim his expert eye through the eye of a high-powered rifle barrel and shoot people – before they shot him or his fellow soldiers.
It’s what snipers are paid to do.
We may not like it because it’s a dirty, horrible, blood-thirsty job.
But then war is a dirty, horrible, blood-thirsty thing. (My brother is a senior officer in the British Army and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. So I need no lectures on the horrors of battle, nor on the courage of those who serve their country.) The only thing that matters in war is winning, and fighting within the rules including the Geneva convention.
Kyle was an abrasive, uncompromising character. His book, on which the movie is based, is not for the faint-hearted and makes no attempt to pacify those who worship at the altar of political correctness.
He described killing as ‘fun’, admitted ‘I wish I’d killed more’, and said of Iraqis: ‘I hate the damn savages.’
None of which is very nice, but since when did we demand ‘nice’ from our snipers?
If I can manage to see the film I will judge for myself although I am not looking forward to the experience. Even so, Morgan makes some very shrewd points, not least his final lines:
He repeatedly risked his life serving his country in some of the most dangerous terrain on earth. And by doing his job so well, better than anyone in his country’s history, he saved many American lives.
We should reserve our ire for the politicians who ordered him into the war in the first place.
THEY, if you opposed the Iraq War, are the real villains.
HE is a hero. A flawed hero, perhaps, but still a hero.
I never subjected myself to Morgan but read plenty about him. Now Fry, I have seen a fair amount of in different roles and enjoy his acting range. Anything beyond acting though, I'm not aware of much.
Posted by: Whitewall | Thursday, 22 January 2015 at 18:33
David, I don't know if your wanderings have taken you past Diplomad, but re American Sniper, he has some good comments on his last couple of offerings.
Posted by: Whitewall | Thursday, 22 January 2015 at 18:36
That Stephen Fry line is brilliant and so is Stephen Fry.
I can say that even if I didn't get an invitation to the wedding.
Posted by: Andra | Thursday, 22 January 2015 at 19:36
'Whiters', Fry is an excellent entertainer and comic but beyond that . . . And, no, I haven't checked in with Diplomad for a while, I'll get on to it tomorrow.
"I didn't get an invitation to the wedding" Thank your lucky stars, Andra!
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 22 January 2015 at 21:32
JK Andra,
Watch the coast please? And quickly.
Posted by: JK | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 04:10
Time to me to 'fess up... Back in the days, I was a sniper myself. We were a VERY independently minded bunch, and one of the main attractions of our particular guild was that once we had been given a task, we would go off in our pairs and do it without some STUPID FRIGGING SUBALTARN who hadn't started shaving yet sticking his oar in and trying to tell us what do. We were VERY aware of how effective we could be. 3 or 4 sniper pairs could - under certain conditions - snarl up a whole battalion and cause it serious grief by taking out key personnel. We did other good stuff as well - recce and MFC.
Corporal Duff's attitude to snipers comes as no surprise. I came across that sort of thing all the time. Most of my fellow NCO's thought I should have been leading a section rather than pissing about with my oppo in the long grass. And the enemy? One thing that was impressed on us from the start was that it would be a BAD idea to get taken prisoner and that we would probably be separated from our testicles as a result!!!
Posted by: Richard | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 07:57
Richard,
You do realize I've my tone set and especially as "the capitalized" comes in? I can handle most things but without guidance as I'd normally have to, and ... without the appropriate guidance at "about the same time" from
"On High" ... Well as ye'll know "capitalizes" is that especial sort
I'da shot the Sub-Altarn if only ... because I'd thought a possible 'mis-int' and/or "What the fuck is a subaltarn? !!!.
__________
Fuck Duff. He's entitled as they all are.
Ask "any Corporal" would you rather us near or far ... well, that didn't require the expected sentence ending punctuation did it
*Generally* they ask rather, "Can't we use a nuke?"
Posted by: JK | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 09:17
bad speling!!!
Posted by: Richard | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 10:56
But excellent hooch!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 12:04
Tootin' good it was here too the hootch, I mighta been one of them vainglorious sorts. Looked left and right, up an' down figurin' if there was danger around (since it's warmed up a mite) it'd be from a yallerjacket fallin' amixed my head hair dangling.
I never considered it'd be one of our most dangchurz Rattle-Headed-Copper-Moccasins out lookin' belly-flat an' quiet-like. An' the gall! To bit me atwixt an' atween my flip-flop separator!
Barney allus sayed to keep Medicinal Snakebite arounds an' hit was good I larned so. If'n I haint I mighta had to pay for an Emergency Room vizit an' had to wait four Obama to take my call.
But I seams to be purty fit now sew y'all needle dispatch y'alls NHS my way runnin' code an' syrene.
Spect one more gallon orter fix me till last week.
_____________
(Shhhh. I hear a bat squawkin. One good spit an' some tater tots an' I'll be fixed for lunch.)
Posted by: JK | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 15:10
JK, can I assume you are overcome with joy that the Sun newspaper will resume showing topless women on page 3? Something has surely got you "stimulated".
Posted by: Whitewall | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 15:29
Well, JK, I don't know what Barney is putting in his carefully-laid-down-for-one-day vintage hooch but it danged near - oops, sorry - I mean, very nearly turned you all poetical in your comment above - a true stream of unconsciousness! However, are you being serious about the snake bite? And if you are *taking it seriously* - by which I mean seeing a doctor - then so be it! If not - you bloody well should, just to be on the safe side!
'WW', don't excite him any further with The Sun's page three girls, it could cause a rush of blood to, er, well, away from his wound, shall we say!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 15:42
Figurin' Whitewell, theirs about to be a bunch a "get-wall-soon" cards wid checks in the maqil heapin' me to git well purty soomn.
Gotta go back on shif ... now where dod I stick that colander?
Wall sumtine as I udderstan the whirls going to hail an' I'm rekwired!
Posted by: JK | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 15:46
JK...thou art "tore up from the floor up".
Posted by: Whitewall | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 16:00
JK ... I'm looking East over the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Give me a hint...........what am I waiting for?
Tsunami? Submarines? Maybe the odd irukandji or blubby about, not to mention a tardy whale or two.
Barramundi season opens on February 1st. or so I am informed.
I'll keep humming "I cover the waterfront" until further notice, will I?
And stop sniffing the dynamite!!
Posted by: Andra | Friday, 23 January 2015 at 19:46
My blushes, Watson!
Posted by: Malcolm Pollack | Saturday, 24 January 2015 at 19:46
You can have those, Malcolm, so long as you don't send me an invoice!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 24 January 2015 at 20:36