Damon & DeNiro speak on the military

Again, we have a liberal TV talk show host (Chris Matthews) interviewing a couple of liberal guys who make millions to pretend to be something they're not (Robert DeNiro and Matt Damon), asking them questions which they are wholly incapable of answering knowledgably.

Monday, the aforementioned actors were on Hardball to promote their new movie about the CIA, "The Good Shepherd". Here's a bit of the transcript, beginning with a question from someone in the audience...

QUESTION: Hi, my name is Meghan Wright, I‘m from Richmond, Virginia 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.

(LAUGHTER)

DENIRO: I ...

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.

(APPLAUSE)

It was nice how DeNiro sidestepped the question about the draft. She asked if he'd go to fight if asked to by his country, and he couldn't answer it! No, instead he goes into whether we should have gone into Iraq. And I'm not sure what in the world Matt Damon is talking about. A "fighting class"??? Tell me, Matt, exactly how do you define the fighting class? If you refer to those Americans who have set aside any ambition to make millions of dollars for the sake of serving their nation, willingly going to foreign lands and risking limb and life, then I would have to agree with your definition.

Something tells me, though, that he has a much different idea in mind. "...people who have to go for either financial reasons or..." Huh? So we in the military are so poor before joining that we join to raise our level of living? Ha! If this is what he thinks, Mr. Damon has no clue. While he made millions pretending to be a soldier in "Saving Private Ryan", real soldiers who face real bullets make less in a year than he makes in a month. Has he not heard the stories of the Reservists who are serving on active duty who have taken huge cuts in pay while being absent from their non-military jobs?

Mr. Damon, the members of the military have joined voluntarily. We come from all backgrounds, all levels of society, all ethnicities. Please know that we are not forced to serve. Contrary to popular opinion in today's society, fame and fortune are not the only things in life that matter.