Hearts and Minds was screened at Lighthouse International last night and it lead to a fantastic discussion. Here’s part of it:
One of the longest discussions on Monday was about a scene from “Hearts and Minds” in which two G.I.’s visit a Vietnamese brothel. One of them twists a woman’s nipples like knobs on a radio and jokes about giving her hickeys “where she can’t hide ‘em.” He reaches across her naked body and says to his buddy, “If my chick at home could see this, she would flip.”
Brennon Jones, who did research for the film, called the scene “the most important segment.” The soldiers, he said, “believe they’re living in a parallel universe where morals don’t apply.” And it is happening all over again, he observed. Just look, he said, at the soldiers giving the thumbs up over naked prisoners at Abu Ghraib. (NYT)
While Iraq is not Vietnam, it does seem that when the motivation for war dissolves (no WMD, no al Qaeda) and there is no clear exit strategy, morals have a habit of becoming dislodged. Sadly, it looks like 30 years is just about long enough to forget — especially for those with disdain for history.
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