Hollywood’s Stand on Persian Gulf War

For Martin Sheen to say that “Hollywood liberals” are “scared to take a stand” on the Persian Gulf War “because the polls show 80% of the population supports the war” is truly outrageous and deeply offensive.

All of the people mentioned in “All Quiet on the Hollywood Front” (Sunday, Feb. 17)--and the rest of us “Hollywood liberals”--are not apologetic that we are not demonstrating or marching against this war. This war is not Vietnam. We knew who was right and who was wrong then, and many of us took highly visible stands when it was much less popular to do so than it is now.

The simple fact is that the issues are far more clouded this time. This enemy is not fighting for its independence, as were the Vietnamese, but against the independence of others. America is not the aggressor in this war, Iraq is. Saddam Hussein is no Ho Chi Minh, no Third-World revolutionary struggling for his people’s freedom from foreign domination. He is a brutal, fascist tyrant who bullies and massacres his own and neighboring peoples as he sees fit.

We “Hollywood liberals” are not embarrassed to root for his downfall, not embarrassed by our concern for Israel’s safety, not embarrassed by our support for the United Nations’ resolutions calling for Iraq’s unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. We are not “courting public opinion” when we don’t join simple-minded, knee-jerk attacks on our government’s policies simply because they are our government’s policies.

If we hesitate to cheer more loudly, it is because we abhor war, we are deeply saddened at the inevitable destruction of human lives--American, Kuwaiti, Israeli, Saudi and Iraqi--and we are not too happy to find ourselves on the same side as conservative Republican Presidents, militaristic Pentagon hawks and Charlton Heston.

But we do know that the answer to the insanity of the slogan “Our country, right or wrong!” cannot and must not become “Against our country, right or wrong!”

It just so happens that in fighting to stop Saddam Hussein’s murderous aggressions, our country this time--strange as it seems to many of us who came of age during the Vietnam era--has finally got it right!