4th of July - Peace is just a word

Rating: 10/10 (4 July 2005)

Annie Lennox, an European artist, sang "Peace is just a word".
The best movie by Tom Cruise, one of the best on America's history.
A few points: 1) This movie shows how Americans were brainwashed by politics in the early '60s. 2) It also shows how people can react to a nonsense war in the late '60s and early '70s. In a few years Americans lost their faith in all powers: politics, religion and people victims just of an "image" war, with no sense. 3) Europe entered no wars after 1948, but the US people still love to look at CNN for the newest war, just as watching a soap opera. Maybe most of them don't really realize it's real, with real people and children dying. 4) Nietsche said: "There is no war without a reason" and added "The reason is always the financial interest of a powerful political minority". Of course the IRAQ war is an exception, as the US want to "export democracy", but actually I've never ever seen a single weapon of mass destruction. 5) The victims are always American and other nations dead people or people whose life will never be the same, for heavy wounds and psychological turmoil, without assistance, all life long. 6) This movie shows the US as the worst 3rd World country, when Bronx hospital is portrayed as a Bangladesh public hospital, where "funds are not enough for Vietnam" and people who "served the country" are left there to die, without any kind of assistance. 7) The main message is: "Who cares about them" and there is even a Republicn convention sending Vietnam Veterans to jail, just because they dared to express their opinion. 8) Today the US does exactly the same wars, this time for the sake of oil and arms usage. It's a shame this time people do not protest, where has the end of '60s protest spirit gone? . Instead they voted this mentally retarded president not only once but TWICE. 9) In Italy, where I live, the Constitution says "Italy repudiates war", so this is why we did not take part to the massacre of children, women and citizens, even though the US started without the authorization of the United Nations. 10) Germany, France, Spain and all other EU countries did never take part to your wars, maybe believing "peace is not just a word". 11) A film that makes you think, about the US brainwashing in "serving the country" (or maybe just serving the powerful lobbies) and about the myth of "the land of the free" where people are treated worse than animals in the Bronx Hospital after they "served" their country. 12) I would recommend watching "Sacco and Vanzetti" to see how the US Courts are able to kill people just for their ideas... is this the land of the free?
I hope this movie will make you think beyond the TV brainwashing and that any war needs to be contrasted just like we do in Europe. Don't let somebody kill yourself, for the sake of Bush's dirty business and Huge Bank Account in Switzerland.
Alberto