Friday, August 12, 2005
Fumento on Over There
Every word Michael Fumento over at Townhall writes about the FX show Over There is true.
Money quotes:
If “Over There” has a true military advisor, he deserves the firing squad. In the first episode a squad is pinned down while besieging a terrorist-filled mosque. The unit remains for about 36 hours with no air support, because “Air is dedicated to another area.” Never mind that planes or choppers are always available within minutes. They request artillery, again to no avail. There’s no armor...
The GIs ARE depicted as both brave and dedicated, as they must be in order to be proper pawns. Conversely they’re also hot-headed; they constantly bark at each other like obnoxious poodles and there’s a knife fight by the second episode. Do the soldiers beat and torture prisoners? Do you have to ask?
Meanwhile the terrorists, who in reality favor “soft” civilian targets, are braver and tougher still. They make the Viet Cong look like pansies. One literally has his torso blown off and yet his legs incredibly keep marching forward. A metaphor, perhaps, for the invincibility of the terrorist Jihad?
Fumento is an ex-paratrooper (do we still have those? why?) who was embedded with the Marines in the last part of the Gulf War two years ago. He probably has forgotten more details the show gets wrong than I will ever see. I'm still going to watch it, though, just in case it grows.
Money quotes:
If “Over There” has a true military advisor, he deserves the firing squad. In the first episode a squad is pinned down while besieging a terrorist-filled mosque. The unit remains for about 36 hours with no air support, because “Air is dedicated to another area.” Never mind that planes or choppers are always available within minutes. They request artillery, again to no avail. There’s no armor...
The GIs ARE depicted as both brave and dedicated, as they must be in order to be proper pawns. Conversely they’re also hot-headed; they constantly bark at each other like obnoxious poodles and there’s a knife fight by the second episode. Do the soldiers beat and torture prisoners? Do you have to ask?
Meanwhile the terrorists, who in reality favor “soft” civilian targets, are braver and tougher still. They make the Viet Cong look like pansies. One literally has his torso blown off and yet his legs incredibly keep marching forward. A metaphor, perhaps, for the invincibility of the terrorist Jihad?
Fumento is an ex-paratrooper (do we still have those? why?) who was embedded with the Marines in the last part of the Gulf War two years ago. He probably has forgotten more details the show gets wrong than I will ever see. I'm still going to watch it, though, just in case it grows.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:52 AM 
