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OT: Similiarities between Kosovo and Wag the Dog

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john_...@my-dejanews.com

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Apr 15, 1999, 3:00:00 AM4/15/99
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I know that this may be off topic for some of these NGs, and I
apologise, but since we are all film lovers, and there's no specific
place for this post, I thought I'd share it with as many people as
possible.

(Obviously, if you haven't seen Wag the Dog, there are a lot of
spoilers here, so don't read after this point)

Kosovo and Albania are adjacent to each other.

NATO says it is protecting Albanian refugees, with pictures of
Albanian refugees flooding Western media. In Wag the Dog, Kristen
Dunst's character plays an Albanian refugee fleeing (Serb?)
prosecution in a scene made specifically for TV news.

In Wag the Dog, an US serviceman was accidentally left behind in the
withdrawal. In the Kosovo operation, three US servicemen who are not
participating in the offensive are captured.

A song was recorded in Nashville by a country singer honouring the war
effort and the abandoned serviceman in Wag the Dog. Recently, a song
was composed impromptu in Los Angeles by a country singer in tribute
to the three captured US servicemen.

In Wag the Dog, public opinion of both the war and President both
gradually become favourable. So far, a majority of Americans polled
support Clinton and Operation Allied Force.

The made for TV scenes produced by Dustin Hoffman's character in Wag
the Dog are almost identical to what is seen on the US news
programmes.

In both cases, the United States' rationale for military action is to
protect innocent civilians.

These are all I can think of at the moment, but the similiarities are
very eerie, IMHO. One almost begins to wonder if the war was
"produced" in order give Clinton a legacy other than "the sex
president."

Chris Hughes

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Apr 15, 1999, 3:00:00 AM4/15/99
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By God, I've been saying exactly the same fucking thing for the last month.
The goals of the conflict start becoming obscure and unpopular with the
public and what happens? Three soldiers are captured and paraded in front of
the public to substitute as the war's new "cause". Oddly enough, you notice
the incredible downplaying of Russia's outright mad-dog, WWIII laced remarks
regarding the conflict? It's almost as if the news media knows that it will
panic the public and isn't reporting it much. Sounds to me like this is an
orchestrated conflict, with both sides using the revving up of the war
machine to stave off potential economic catastrophe in case the Y2K bug
proves too damaging. Wartime economies always pull a nation up by its
bootstraps, and Russia and the US both need a soft place to fall in the
event of collapse (even if the bug itself doesn't cause damage, the public
panic over it--listen to the number of people who are going to draw all
their money out of banks--will fulfill the prophecy that we seem to be
steering towards). It's as if the US and Russia agreed to both rattle sabers
to the public to fuel the fires of war-time productivity, but Russia's
remarks started leaking too much, and we're trying to redirect public
attention so they won't notice what's being said.

The "Wag the Dog" similarities are frightening and uncanny.

I wouldn't put it past our government for two seconds.

Chris Hughes

----------
In article <37167338...@news.atl.bellsouth.net>,

CiPHER

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Apr 16, 1999, 3:00:00 AM4/16/99
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Chris Hughes wrote:
> The "Wag the Dog" similarities are frightening and uncanny.
> I wouldn't put it past our government for two seconds.

Jesus christ, you Americans are paranoid nutters. First you all spout
about the similarities between Wag the Dog and the last Gulf bombings,
now Kosovo.

Remember that it's NATO in there, not just America... and it's not some
master plan to sightly raise the image of some sex-starved President.
There are obviously more important things at stake, like saving the
lives of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, or at
least, SHOULD be in Kosovo. [Of course recent news shows that a NATO
pilot took to bombing a convoy of refugees, nice to know we're
"stopping" the massacre of refugees]

======
CiPHER
http://www.cybergoth.net/nexus

Michael Brooke

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Apr 16, 1999, 3:00:00 AM4/16/99
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<john_...@my-dejanews.com> wrote:

>
> These are all I can think of at the moment, but the similiarities are
> very eerie, IMHO. One almost begins to wonder if the war was
> "produced" in order give Clinton a legacy other than "the sex
> president."

One thing you left out is the fact that 'Wag the Dog' is currently by
far the most popular pirate video (and indeed TV broadcast) in
Yugoslavia, and one enterprising entrepreneur has created a new version
in which the fake footage of Albania being invaded has been replaced by
real footage of Serbia being bombed!

In other words, you're not exactly the only person who thinks this
way...

Michael
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http://www.illumin.co.uk/svank
a lavish tribute to the cinema's wildest imagination
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Toff Philippo

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Apr 16, 1999, 3:00:00 AM4/16/99
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Michael Brooke wrote:

> <john_...@my-dejanews.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > These are all I can think of at the moment, but the similiarities are
> > very eerie, IMHO. One almost begins to wonder if the war was
> > "produced" in order give Clinton a legacy other than "the sex
> > president."
>
> One thing you left out is the fact that 'Wag the Dog' is currently by
> far the most popular pirate video (and indeed TV broadcast) in
> Yugoslavia, and one enterprising entrepreneur has created a new version
> in which the fake footage of Albania being invaded has been replaced by
> real footage of Serbia being bombed!
>
> In other words, you're not exactly the only person who thinks this
> way...

Or in other words, J.B., you've bought into Serbian propaganda. Have a
nice life as a fascist, loser.

Funny, this group's charter stating that subjects must be
Hitchcock-related had just been posted here. And your message isn't.

Hitchcock did produce some war propaganda films himself. Aventure
Malagache didn't really capture me, but I enjoyed Bon Voyage...not really
a happy story, or even a pro-war film.

The Museum of Modern Art will be showing those two films, and also The
Memory of the Camps. Anyone familiar with the last, beyond what MoMA has
to say about it on their site?

Toff

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