Let’s start with a terrible pun.  The February 25, 2010 private screening of Lt. Dan:  For The Common Good, at Tribeca Screening Room would more appropriately be described as a “Five Star General” screening. 

The privilege of being invited to sit side-by-side with first responders and their families (on the night of a ferocious snowstorm that kept many away), a mere fraction of a mile from the site of the Atrocity, renders an urgency to spread the word about a movie that shall blaze a trail of truth about the liberating force that is the United States of America, and the exploits of her heroic military and first responders, whose greatness and bravery remain understated to this day.  What makes this movie so special is that it features the extensive travels, tireless efforts and loving dedication pouring forth from a Hollywood movie star (!) whose impact on the morale of history’s greatest fighting forces will place him alongside Bob Hope in the pantheon of American civilian Patriots.   And what is so notable is the total absence of self-aggrandizement displayed by Gary Sinise as he and his fellow travelers travel the world, providing a much-needed dose of real and totally sincere hope and change.  Sometimes the film’s viewer finds the Lt. Dan Band amid the safety and security of military bases here in the USA; at other times we see the Lt. Dan Band touring and performing for our Servicemen and Servicewomen amid the horror-show of hot lead, blistering sun and heat; and sometimes we see Gary Sinise amid the now-dormant torture chambers scattered among the disgustingly conspicuous displays of Saddam’s and his sons’ palatial excesses.  As Gary Sinise tours these facilities, one (if in possession of a functioning brain cell, an Ivy-league degree and/or a Hollywood pedigree) need not wonder whether jihadists who suffered the indignities of pink panties placed over their heads by bored American soldiers were “tortured,” as compared to the plight of newly-married brides plucked from the altars by Uday and Qusay, then debauched beyond description before being fed to wild animals in the same prisons after their virtues were no longer stimulating to the savage sons of Saddam.

Every freedom-loving American; every person who understands that our liberties are fortified not by a signed treaty waved in our faces by an American politician, but rather, by the presence of history’s greatest fighting forces standing between the darkest elements of humanity and our tender throats.

Gary Sinise is so much more than an American actor.  Gary Sinise is so much more than the Lt. Dan Band.  Gary Sinise personifies that “specialness” that so few who live in the comfort and safety we so often take for granted in history’s greatest nation—America—ever display.  As a hyper-partisan American anti-jihadist/anti-communist, this writer salutes Lt. Dan as a fellow traveler; a fellow serviceman to America’s wonderful Servicemen and Servicewomen.

As Easter Sunday fades into Easter Monday, let us all salute Gary Sinise, American Patriot.

[NOTE: That the attackers of our Homeland on that sunny September morning were non-Iraqi jihadists is utterly irrelevant.  Saddam’s Iraq’s jihadist training facilities featured Boeing jetcraft used by hijackers as practice fields.  Iraq’s medical facilities were used by jihadists seeking treatment.  Saddam’s Iraq offered conspicuous aid and comfort for countless terrorists affiliated with the attackers.  Perhaps neutral historians will cite the extensive work of notables such as Stephen Hayes, Robert Spencer and Kenneth Timmerman. Perhaps somehow it would occur to our mass-media, virtually the entire entertainment community, our academic institutions and an entire political party, that there is something ignoble in their ongoing, relentless campaign to act and speak on behalf of Saddam Hussein as if they were Johnnie Cochran and Robert Shapiro in defense of the slashing running back O.J. Simpson.   Hundreds of thousands of pages of documents someday will be processed and interpreted by historians, as will the fact of 500 tons of yellowcake uranium that were found by our troops and transported to Canada, huge news which received virtually no attention on the part of Saddam Hussein’s “defense attorneys” cited above.]