What’s in a word? What does a name signify? If you call a thing by a certain label does it make it so? For the life of me I cannot understand why a film is titled Winter Soldier and contains a character by that name when the term has nothing at all to do with the historical reality associated with the term Winter Soldier. From the information I’ve gathered so far online there seems to be absolutely no connection at all between the movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the historical and contemporary Winter Soldiers of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan telling the public about war crimes. I find this a tad unsettling while seriously doubting there will be any ongoing social media dishing of this misappropriation of a phrase which designates American veterans as there was of The Lone Ranger. There was a ton of chatter about all the things ‘wrong’ with The Lone Ranger –all of which went on while blatantly ignoring the movie’s outright attacks on genocide, manifest destiny and the military industrial complex. I came across some comments regarding a clip from a portion of the real Winter Soldier testimony in which people were considering the effect of the Captain America film on the reality of the veterans known as Winter Soldiers. Once the movie is seen by millions who pay little attention to historical events, the term Winter Soldier will be coupled with a character from a movie with absolutely no meaningful connection to the Winter Soldiers of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Is there any greater insult to people who have the courage to speak the truth about war? Hmm, ooops I shouldn’t have asked that question, because I’m sure there are greater insults. Have no doubt that the FBI and/or the CIA could top such an insult with ease. More on that when I post my review of Betty Medsger’s very unsettling book, The Burglary. It’s an unsettling read for what it reveals about the totally corrupt character of the FBI under J.Edgar Hoover. If you can imagine a law to break, the FBI broke it. I digress, more to come on the book later. Back to misrepresentation, illusion and manipulated delusions of Marvel Comics characters. Superheroes can be so enthralling. They’re also very unreal.
Now if anyone sees the Disney film and finds a connection between the illusion and the reality, please do not hesitate to share it.
Wait–could it be the concept of brainwashing? Could it? Let’s consider that possibility…hmmm. Why not? It’s a connection. Or is it?
My thanks to Wikipedia for the factual information and links that follow.
On with the show.
What does this illusion:
Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Information about the film via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America:_The_Winter_Soldier
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Steve Rogers’ best friend, who has reemerged as an enhanced brainwashed assassin after being thought killed in action during World War II.[12][7] About the character, Feige said, “Winter Soldier has been methodically, almost robotically, following orders for 70 years.”[13] Stan, who has a nine-picture deal with Marvel Studios including his appearance in The First Avenger,[14]endured five months of physical training to prepare for the role and did historical research stating, “I dove into the whole Cold War thing. I looked at the KGB. I looked at all kinds of spy movies, and all kinds of documentaries about that time, and what it was about. I grabbed anything from that time period. Anything about brainwashing.”[15] Regarding Bucky’s transition into the Winter Soldier, Stan said, “You know, the truth of the situation is although he looks very different and there’s different things about him, it still comes from the same person. I think you’ll get to see that no matter what. I think part of my goal here was to make sure that you see an extension of that version but just a different color of that same version in a way. I think he’s still the same guy; he’s cut from the same cloth.”[16]
have to do with this reality?:
Winter Soldier Investigation via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier_Investigation
The “Winter Soldier Investigation” was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) from January 31, 1971 – February 2, 1971. It was intended to publicize war crimes and atrocities by the United States Armed Forces and their allies in the Vietnam War. The VVAW challenged the morality and conduct of the war by showing the direct relationship between military policies and war crimes in Vietnam. The three-day gathering of 109 veterans and 16 civilians took place in Detroit, Michigan. Discharged servicemen from each branch of military service, as well as civilian contractors, medical personnel and academics, all gave testimony about war crimes they had committed or witnessed during the years of 1963–1970.[1][2][3]
With the exception of Pacifica Radio, the event was not covered extensively outside Detroit. However, several journalists and a film crew recorded the event, and a documentary film called Winter Soldier was released in 1972. A complete transcript[4] was later entered into the Congressional Record by Senator Mark Hatfield, and discussed in the Fulbright Hearings in April and May 1971, convened by Senator J. William Fulbright, chair of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
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Democracy Now! Coverage of Winter Soldier
Democracy Now coverage of the Winter Soldier event in Washington DC-Testimony of the Iraq Occupation
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Via Wikipedia : Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan was an event at which more than 200 U.S. military veterans and active duty soldiers,[1] as well as Iraqi and Afghan civilians,[2] provided accounts of their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The event was inspired by the Winter Soldier Investigation of 1971. It was organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, and held from March 13 to March 16, 2008, timed for the fifth anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland.[2]
- Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan. Iraq Veterans Against the War.
- Jamail, Dahr (September 19, 2008). “We blew her to pieces”. Asia Times Online. Retrieved September 20, 2008. (A book review of Winter soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan: eyewitness accounts of the occupations by Aaron Glantz andIraq Veterans Against the War.)
- Bica, Camillo Mac. When Morality Demands Winter Soldiers. An argument for the Winter Soldier hearings. Truth-out.org, February 4, 2008.
- Winter soldier testimonials on YouTube.
The “Winter Soldiers” of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
om mani padme hum jewel in the lotus wahupa qi prana universal life energy
ohnwentsya said,
March 14, 2014 at 6:40 am
Reblogged this on Spirit In Action and commented:
Thank you for posting this. I never knew about winter soldiers. Disney is always programming colonized nonsense into children-and now co-opting a term to dilute and divert from important truths.Not new for them but still low:-/
47whitebuffalo said,
March 14, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Hello ohnwenntsya and thank you very much for the reblog. At the time of the “second” incarnation of Winter Soldiers there was so very little news coverage that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. If not for Amy Goodman’s coverage on Democracy Now! I too might never have known such soldiers were speaking out.
As for Disney–I agree, they seem to be running true to form when it comes to playing fast and loose with reality and fact.
Thanks for visiting my blogcasa. 🙂
simonhlilly said,
March 14, 2014 at 9:45 am
Black becomes white, bad becomes good by incremental steps. Of course there is a connection! Those who speak out against the Holy Government’s wars must have been brainwashed, poor lambs! What sane, patriotic individual would not see that. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a terrorist, a communist, a faschist, a hippy, a layabout, a coward, a reactionary….
47whitebuffalo said,
March 14, 2014 at 3:41 pm
:That will be twenty waterboardings and no lights out for you! How dare you utter such a statement of fact,simonhlilly.
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🙂 Merci. No wonder J. Edgar Hoover hated writers and artists so much. According to Medsger, creative types were the most dangerous subversives in Hoover’s mental ward of a mind.
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PS. I hope no one gets the ‘wrong’ idea by missing the tone of your comment.
Waves to the nice folks collecting paychecks at NSA.
simonhlilly said,
March 14, 2014 at 3:47 pm
(Well, as a foreigner,I assume I am automatically herded into the pens labled red pinko wimp degenerates.)
I love the fact that, apparently, all poetry is a total no-no for the guests at Guantenemo (sp?), as being too subversive and inciting naughty thoughts…..
47whitebuffalo said,
March 14, 2014 at 4:07 pm
Hmm, all the more reason to continue creating and sharing poems, isn’t it?
Thank you, naughty fellow, for that piece of intell, I was unware of it. Oh the things we learn when we connect.