Les Jones

Thanks for the link! This guy bugs me to death.

I didn't see him call any nonsense. All I saw was vitriolic raving.

Raving was in order. Here's an excerpt from Penn:

I've quietly arranged (the less my whereabouts are known, the better) to switch cars at the Hunting Club, a private social club that traditionally hosted a who's-who of Iraqi society. Saddam Hussein's son Oday was known to pick up girls there.Penn is apparently delighted to be in the inner sanctum of Baathist Iraq. As Michael points out, he mentions that Uday picked up girls there, while neglecting to point out that a "date" with Uday often meant being raped, beaten, and murdered. How far will Penn go to defend and protect dictators?

How exactly does "pick up" disclude, raping, beating and murder? He didn't say anything about a "date". Did you read his journal? He spends the entire time acknowledging how brutal Saddam's regime was. Why would he suddenly make Uday out to be a harmless playboy?

"How exactly does "pick up" disclude, raping, beating and murder?"

C'mon, Chris. When one of your friends tells you he picked up a girl at a bar, is that what you assume he did?

"Did you read his journal? He spends the entire time acknowledging how brutal Saddam's regime was."

No offense, Chris, but either you and I are reading completely different journals or your reading comprehension skills are terrible.

Penn does not spend the entire journal acknowledging the brutality of Saddam's regime. Here's part 1 and part 2. Where does he denounce Saddam?

This is the closest thing I find to a condemnation, and even it is really an equivocation:

"Though most Iraqis are glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein, his rule, perverse though it may have been, brought a sense of security and order. That has been lost."

So now Uncle Saddam isn't around to give Iraqis a warm, cuddly feeling when he isn't torturing or killing them. Boo freakin' hoo.

Just to be sporting, I searched for the words "rape" and "kill" in the article. The only match for rape was a denouncement of U.N. troops in Bosnia. None of the instances of "kill" related to Saddam's ruling order or his soldiers, though several refered to U.S. troops killed in Iraq.

You're in denial of the plain facts.

If the Hussein regime could be credited with anything, it would be with keeping obsessively complete records of the atrocities the regime itself committed. (Pol Pot and Hitler shared this habit.) Many of the death warrants are signed by Hussein. Our tour ends in a room of moldy documents piled head-high and wall to wall, representing some of the lives claimed under this horrific regime.

Organizers took over the house of one of Saddam's cousins to document the crimes of the regime. Sorting through hundreds of thousands of looted documents, the staff logs the names of all those in prison, executed, tortured or still missing.

My comprehension skills are fine. Phrases like "horrific regime" and "atrocities" sound pretty condemning to me.

C'mon, Chris. When one of your friends tells you he picked up a girl at a bar, is that what you assume he did?

I don't know of anyone that would ever attempt to condone Uday's actions. So, when I read him say "pick up", since it was talking about Uday Hussein, as far as I am concerned, "raped and murdered" is implied. The guy was scum -- everyone acknowledges that, except for maybe some fantasy leftie communists you've demonified inside your head. In any event, your logic is screwy to begin with. "If X doesn't explicitly condemn Y, then X obviously supports Y." is fallacious. In this case, X (sean penn) doesn't explicitly condemn Y (uday), because, uh, everyone on the planet has already implicitly condemned Y. (uday)

Show me some evidence of Sean Penn condoning Uday's rape and murder and then we'll talk.

Until then, you're making a mountain out of .. a valley.

Sean Penn is one of the most annoying figures to come out of this Iraq war. His acting skills are lackluster, his journalism is the same, and worst is that he was against the war. Now that the head hancho has been found in a "spider hole" and his sons dead aparently thinking of fighting to the death, mr. Dictator decides to surrender like a pussy. Tell Penn to support that. Sure we all know the crap Saddam did, no one will argue this. But arguing not going to war to replace Saddam and then going to say "he is a bad man" too is a oxy-moron. The truth is that freedom cost lots of money, lifes and time. If people have to die for the future survival of their own kind or state, the sacrifice must be made. Matter of fact its already made by millitary leaders. (Reply to the post not MY article please)

Chris: I still don't read that as Penn spending the whole article denouncing Saddam, and what is there isn't much of a denouncement.

Sean Penn is pissed at the new movie Team America. He made one trip to Iraq and now he's an expert. Just what we need, some dickhead millionaire actor getting in the way of fighting a war. His meddling, by the way, does much more harm than a hillarious movie. Let's face it Sean, you're nothing about a loud-mouthed prima donna whose sole job is acting like someone else. Shut up and crawl back into your Malibu hnle.