On 2007-07-18, Dave Smith > wrote:

> clean. Violence is messy and I think we do a disservice to the victims and
> to ourselves if we try to delude ourselves into thinking that killing is
> not a dirty, grisly business. Maybe a touch of reality is what people need
> to understand what is really involved.

Exactly, Dave. SPR was intentionally sickeningly realistic so those
of us who were not there could more fully appreciate those who were
and the sacrifice they made. The horror of coming off those boats
....if one made it off!... and seeing buddies dropping like flies and
ripped to shreds while desperately seeking any sanctuary and there
being none, nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, no escaping the rain of
death befalling all from every quarter of Omaha Beach, needs to be
conveyed to those who are use to the sanitized 6 o'clock news. Those
German machine guns were real and spewed real death and those boys
experienced a horror I can't even imagine. I choke up every time I
see that opening scene and I thank God I didn't have to experience it
and thank Stephen Spielberg for helping me realize just how terrifying
an experience those boys had to endure.

I think everyone should be forced to watch that opening scene at least
once a year as a condition of citizenship. I'm stunned none of the
networks have aired it on Memorial Day for the last two years. Maybe
if more people had a better appreciation of what war is really like
there might not have been such a wave of support to send our boys off
to Iraq. Those poor guys are still living that very nightmare. Bring
'em home, I say. This war is nothing but a pork barrel for a raving
maniac's cronies.

nb