Clint Eastwood’s Anti-War Speech
Some (including myself) weren’t all that impressed with Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention last night, but Ed Krayewski liked it and writes at Reason that it was one of the greatest convention speeches ever because of it’s anti-war content.
After asking the president about broken promises (mentioning only Guantanamo specifically), Eastwood told him:
“I know you were against the War in Iraq and that’s okay. But you thought the war in Afghanistan was, was okay. I mean, you thought that was something that was worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how they did there for the ten years. We did it. It’s something to be thought about.”
It ought to be noted here that the American war in Afghanistan began in the fall of 2001 as a response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and after much of Al-Qaeda’s forces and their allies the Taliban, who ruled the county, were routed, President George W. Bush decided to stay and nation build. The war in Afghanistan is now America’s longest war, with no end in sight.
Eastwood continued:
“You mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home and you give that target date and I think Mr. Romney has the only sensible question, though, why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?”
This decidedly anti-war stance actually received a good amount of applause from the delegates who this week nominated the pro-war Mitt Romney over the anti-war Ron Paul (votes for whom at the convention were not counted).
“Whether the Republicans will make Clint Eastwood’s day (which appears to include bringing the troops home now), he certainly made the day of anyonedisturbed by the lack of attention this election season to the ever-continuing war in Afghanistan,” writes Krayewski.
I wonder how many delegates in the room were cheering for Eastwood’s anti-war comments, or just cheering for Eastwood’s celebrity in general.
Tags: afghanistan, clint eastwood, iraq, republican national convention
