Sean Penn Website, Sean Penn & Iraq

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Sean Penn & Iraq

Even though Sean Penn always insists, that he is unpolitical and points out that he does no belong to any political party - the political activism has a tradition in the Penn family. Leo Penn, Sean father, refused, calling before McCarthys American Activities Committee, to name alleged communists in Hollywood and thereupon was set on the `black list`. Without a doubt Sean Penn character was stamped by the influence of the father and so Sean build up, although - as he says - not politically engaged, a political and social feeling for justice.

It was October 2002, before other Hollywood Stars went on the street for demonstration, that Sean Penn started to interfere into the international debate about the Iraq - and this with a sensational bang! He wrote an open letter ` to Mr. Bush`, placed as a full-page ad, for which he paid the proud amount of $ 56,000, in the daily newspaper `Washington Post`. Therein he requested the president of the United States - among other things - to let the weapon inspectors do their work and to stop the cycle of `bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing`

What an impertinent thing to do!
And surely it polarized people. Apart from much agreement for his courage Sean Penn was also confronted with heaviest reproaches, in particular from politicians and the press. On television he was scoffed and many people regarded him as a traitor to his country.

The Rupert Murdoch media empire - Sean personal enemy since his marriage to Madonna and owner of the New York Post und Fox News Channel - quickly contacted Republican congressman Peter King who talked tough: `The guy's lucky he can act and should leave it at that. It gives recognition to Hussein, that he doesn't deserve.`

Sean Penn friend and actor-colleague Woody Harrelson put it like this: `... when he did that deal with Iraq, my admiration for him shot through the roof. I just thought that was one of the bravest moves ever. Of course, he got nothing but shit for it.`

In an interview in the year 2005 Sean Penn reflected as follows over the hostility he got after his Washington Post publication: `... But the bigger issue is that it's an absolutely stupid notion that you should take the title of someone's profession and attach it to what they should not do. It has nothing to do with citizenry. I think they should shove it with their hypocritical Ronald Reagan standard right up their ass.`

The affair became still worse, because Sean Penn dared to travel in December 2002 to the Iraq!
In the eyes of many incomprehensible, unpatriotic and traitorous. Who the hell does he think he is? He is no politician, no soldier, not even a journalist! What is an actor looking for in Iraq?

Norman Solomon, the director of the `Institute for the Public Accuracy` (a consortium of political scientists) had invited Sean Penn to the journey and he had accepted the invitation, as `a patriot and observer`, because he wanted to have a better understanding of the crisis between Iraq and the USA.

A decision, that deserves our respect, especially with regard of the background of the reproaches and hostility regarding his person.

Kathy Kelly, a freedom activist who met Sean Penn in Iraq reflects on him as follows:
`I'm sort of preternaturally out of it: my friends wrote to me and said: `Sean Penn was married to Madonna, and we don't mean the mother of Jesus! Try to get this straight ... So we went to the Al-Rashid and Sean sat and talked with us for about an hour. It seemed to me he was a very genuine person - didn't have any airs, didn't seem interested in making an impression ... And we admired him for saying he wasn't going to be anybody's poster boy: he just wanted to go and look and listen.`

Sean Penn tried to keep the press out of his journey. He only made a brief statement, when he arrived at the Al-Mansour Children's Hospital, that he was glad to be there . He refused to talk further with reporters or allow them to join his tour of the hospital, saying he needed privacy with the sick children.

On 15 December 2002 Sean Penn held a press conference in the Al-Rashid in Baghdad.

In a statement issued later, Sean Penn said that `as a father, an actor, a filmmaker and a patriot` his visit to Iraq `is for me a natural extension of my obligation ... to find my own voice on matters of conscience.` He said that he was happy that he had a chance `to pursue a deeper understanding of the conflict` and hoped that `all Americans will embrace information available to them outside conventional channel.`

And the Iraq used Sean Penn visit for their own propaganda. On 19. December 2002 the official Iraqi News Agency reported: `... that Sean Penn had in the course of his trip confirmed, that Iraq is completely clear of weapons of mass destruction`. (!!)

So much `interference` in `big politic should not be without consequences. Like many other actors, Sean Penn got to feel the effects of his open expression of opinion.

In February 2003, just a month prior to the invasion of Iraq, Sean Penn sued producer Steve Bing for $10 million for allegedly firing the actor from a film. Sean Penn alleged he was sacked because of his Washington Post ad and his visit to Baghdad. Bing then has alleged the actor threatened to embarrass him by saying a political disagreement kept them from making a movie together.

However, meanwhile Bing has suffered the first blow in the legal wrangle after a judge has dismissed some claims. The Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled, that Bings claim for civil extortion did not exist in Californian law ...

At first, one did not hear more about Sean Penns stay in the Iraq ... Until 30 May 2003, thus after the official end of the third Iraq war, when he wrote a further open letter - this time in the New York Times and again booked and paid from him as political ad.
And here Sean Penn is telling for the first time about his journey to the Iraq, his reasons for the journey and he reported about his experiences. And he articulates himself:
`We see Exxon. We see Bechtel. We see Halliburton. We see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Powell, Rice, Perle, Ashcroft, Murdoch, many. We see no WMDs. We see dead young Americans. We see no WMDs. We see dead Iraqi civilians. We see no WMDs. We see chaos in the Baghdad streets. But no WMDs.`

And also this article does not lack unintentional humor, when Sean Penn is making fun of president Bush's stupid `Mission Accomplished` action on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln:

`This is his debutante ball, isn't it? This young man of privilege, who never had the curiosity to set foot outside our country before becoming our President, was dressed in his `Top Gun` jumper, flown in, onto the flight deck of the LINCOLN. I didn't need a second viewing of this one. Tom Cruise was fine by me ...` (I really enjoyed that part!)

In this ad Sean Penn explains, that one of the reasons, he made this journey was `my need to replace television images with a real sense of place and people`.
And his impression of the Iraq was `the most decimated, starved, diseased and polluted place I had ever witnessed.`

Sean Penn talks about things, rarely discussed in the media: The influence of the large concerns on the Bush government, the attacks on free expression of opinion and the foreign politics, supported by lies, which shows up clearly in not finding any WMD`s.

December 2003:

One year after its first Iraq attendance and briefly before catching Saddam Hussein Sean Penn visited the Iraq a second time. And this time not only as a private person but also with a public mission, because this time he traveled as a journalist on behalf of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The two articles about Sean Penns second journey to the Iraq where printed in the San Francisco Chronicle on 14 January 2004 2004 and 15 January 2004, According to my opinion both articles are written very close to life and very sensitive. One goes with Sean Penn on an uncertain journey, suffers with him hunger and thirst, fears for his live and here and there starts to laugh out loud, because the reports are written with a great sence of humor, despite all martial disaster. On the other side, his articles may not always be politically correct.

For example he writes about the after-war-situation in Iraq:
`If military intervention in Iraq has been a grave misjudgment, it has been one resulting in thousands upon thousands of deaths, and done so without any credible evidence of imminent threat to the United States. Our flag has been waving, it seems, in servicing a regime change significantly benefiting U.S. corporations.`

And therefore it is only natural that again this journey is accompanied by heavily criticism. Specially the `real` journalists felt insulted. How could an ingenious actor (without question !), be so forward to mix up as a journalist into high politics? Nevertheless he is no expert!

At this point we have to ask ourselves one question: Does he have to be an expert at all? Sean Penn stressed again and again that he was acting primarily as a citizen of the USA, as a patriot and as a father. And he is above all independent - contrary to a professional journalist, who is more or less responsible to his publishers. Sean Penn spoke for example with the common people on the Iraqi streets and with members of staff of the UN. The journalists are usually staying within their assigned military area and there they have unrestricted entrance - so far they are not reporting anything negative about the military ....

Well Sean Penn is definitely no expert in the area of the iraqi politic, the historical background of the Iraq and the economic entwinements - however nobody expects this! His qualities are far more important for the common people: unrestricted independence and no direct entangling in this game of powers. As someone commentated so beautifully: `Yes, Sean Penn actually visited the Iraq - and that is more, than many journalists can claim for themselves.`

Sean Penn's second journey definitely earns all our respect. Critics accuse Sean Penn of self-manifestation and arrogance. But, honestly, would he really risk his life for a better profile? I think, anybody can answer this question for oneself.

Well, also in the future, Sean Penn for sure doesn't mince matters and he will not back-frighten to advance his opinion.

So, for example, he wrote in October 2004 an open letter to the creators of `Team America`, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who had explained in public: `If you dont know what youre talking about, there's no shame in not voting.`
Thereupon Sean Penn answered, that it is, on the contrary, very important to vote, and he didn't think that it was very clever of the two creators, to encourage people to be irresponsible. In addition he invited the two to accompany him on a further Iraq journey.

Before we dismiss the activism of our stars, we should consider its unique benefits: What other individuals have the podium and the power to speak out in an entirely individualistic way - and be heard ...?