Myrmidonisia
20-12-2006, 22:45
I saw Matt Damon stumble over this question on Hardball (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16282855/)last night. It was hilarious to watch him and Robert DiNiro pontificate over the draft and how sacrifices should be shared, only to start doing the back stroke after a caller pressed the point a little harder.
Damon: What bothers me the most about the state we're in right now is I don't feel that there's a shared consciousness and a shared sense of sacrifice, and we have these young men and women who are fighting a war in name and our president tells us to go shopping. And I think that more can be asked of us and we need to be participating more for--I think that makes for a more robust democracy. . . .
Question: Hi, my name is Meghan Wright, I'm from Richmond, Va., and I was just--this question is both for Mr. DeNiro and Mr. Damon. I was just wondering, would either of you go to war right now? Not right now, I guess, but--would you go to war if you were asked?
DeNiro: Well that's such a complex question. . . .
Matthews: If you were drafted?
DeNiro: Well, I don't know, that's another thing about the draft and so on, if it ever would come up again. I mean, I was for going to Iraq originally and then I saw, I realized that when you--we went in and we didn't know how to like deal with it once we were there.
We just thought they'd all cheer us and we'd be out and then they'd want democracy. We're dealing with--we were just talking about before--the thousands of years old cultures that have all their in-fighting, whatever. I mean, we can't come in unless we have a real plan or strategy and I never thought that.
Damon: There is this great book that just came out about that called "Imperial Life in the Emerald City." That's definitely a book worth reading, just about that.
We kind of blundered in there with the best intentions, but nevertheless without a plan. So, but in terms of your question, I agree with Bob that it's a complex question. It would depend on certain situations. I mean, I don't think that it's fair, as I said before that it seems that we have a fighting class in our country that's comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons or you know, I don't think that that is fair. And if you're going to send people to war, if we all get together and decide we need to go to war, then that needs to be shared by everybody, you know. And if the president has daughters who are of age, then maybe they should go to.
"Huh? Shared sacrifice? Not really, we meant you other people should share."
When are we going to learn that the political opinions of Hollywood celebrities aren't worth the paper they're written on.
Damon: What bothers me the most about the state we're in right now is I don't feel that there's a shared consciousness and a shared sense of sacrifice, and we have these young men and women who are fighting a war in name and our president tells us to go shopping. And I think that more can be asked of us and we need to be participating more for--I think that makes for a more robust democracy. . . .
Question: Hi, my name is Meghan Wright, I'm from Richmond, Va., and I was just--this question is both for Mr. DeNiro and Mr. Damon. I was just wondering, would either of you go to war right now? Not right now, I guess, but--would you go to war if you were asked?
DeNiro: Well that's such a complex question. . . .
Matthews: If you were drafted?
DeNiro: Well, I don't know, that's another thing about the draft and so on, if it ever would come up again. I mean, I was for going to Iraq originally and then I saw, I realized that when you--we went in and we didn't know how to like deal with it once we were there.
We just thought they'd all cheer us and we'd be out and then they'd want democracy. We're dealing with--we were just talking about before--the thousands of years old cultures that have all their in-fighting, whatever. I mean, we can't come in unless we have a real plan or strategy and I never thought that.
Damon: There is this great book that just came out about that called "Imperial Life in the Emerald City." That's definitely a book worth reading, just about that.
We kind of blundered in there with the best intentions, but nevertheless without a plan. So, but in terms of your question, I agree with Bob that it's a complex question. It would depend on certain situations. I mean, I don't think that it's fair, as I said before that it seems that we have a fighting class in our country that's comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons or you know, I don't think that that is fair. And if you're going to send people to war, if we all get together and decide we need to go to war, then that needs to be shared by everybody, you know. And if the president has daughters who are of age, then maybe they should go to.
"Huh? Shared sacrifice? Not really, we meant you other people should share."
When are we going to learn that the political opinions of Hollywood celebrities aren't worth the paper they're written on.