September 17, 2007

Brian De Palma and Rape in Iraq

By Ben Voth
Famed film director Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables) has completed and publicly screened a new film, Redacted, detailing allegations of a rape by US soldiers in Iraq.  The appearance of this film is sad but not surprising.  American soldiers fighting against the genocidal aspirations of various fanatics have borne the brunt of a Western media culture that is most interested in casting the Americans as victims or villains.  De Palma was reported recently saying, "When I read about the Mahmudiyah incident in Iraq 2006 -- five US soldiers raped a local girl, killed her and her family and later tried to disguise it as an insurgent attack - I knew I had a story."  De Palma like so many other political reactionaries, knows he has a story when it paints an American soldier in the most negative light.  Perhaps more interesting for Americans is what is not a story to him and to many others in the culture business.What is not a story is a dictator...(Read Full Article)