Daily Gut: War Vets and the People Who Play Them

So once there was a man who had been arrested for violently beating another man – simply because he took his picture. Previously, he`d been busted for beating his own wife. Another man was busted for drugs – the least of his problems, since he`d previously shot his fiancé. And then there was this other creep named Tom – nailed for assault and battery, dealing in crystal meth, and most recently – down on his luck – busted for stealing cell phones.

A sad bunch, really.

Now if you`re Janet Napolitano, then you’re probably assuming I’m referring to a common sampling of our nation`s vets returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. After all, it was her report that said we`ve got a pile of damaged souls on our hands, on the brink, and ready to snap.

But actually I’m not: like Janet, I was only making a cursory assessment about a group of people – actors, actually – from recent anti-war films.

The fact is, it’s not the vets we have to worry about, it’s the jackasses who play them.

But isn’t that the joke here? For the last thirty years, Hollywood has perpetuated the myth of the troubled vet – egged on by the cacklers on the coasts, nearly all of whom have never met a war vet in their life. To them, every dude in a uniform is Timothy McVeigh.

The real truth is that, nearly all military dudes are delightfully decent and even mundane – far saner than you and me – and without a doubt much more fun than Napolitano – a person, who, as Governor Rendell once pointed out, doesn’t get out much. She probably just rents “The Road to Guantanamo” repeatedly off Netflix, while thinking of new words to describe terror that won`t hurt anyone`s feelings.

And that`s what gets me. Right now we have an administration that cares more about the feelings of those who want to kill us, than those who want to protect us.

I mean, if Janet were around in the 1940`s, we`d probably all be speaking Austrian.

TONIGHT: Diana Falzone, Hampton Stevens, and comedian Tim Slagle. Plus my mom.