Get into the spirit! with this "Armed to the teeth" Christmas toy list

[G_j]

HAVE YOURSELF A PENTAGON CHRISTMAS

Nick Turse, tomdispatch.com

What would the holidays be without little muscularized molded-plastic dolls holding big guns in a kung-fu battle grip?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17436

You surely don't want to deny your child the right to strut an aircraft-carrier flight deck or duke it out in person with Osama bin Laden. So from the Pentagon to you, via us, comes the A (for "Armed to the Teeth") list of presents sure to make this a true military-industrial Christmas!

[beanball]

1. The reason for the season

its not about war,its about PEACE.Giving not recieving,We recieved the greatest gift the world has ever known but we continue to seek material things stuff we can't take with us but greed is so pervasive in this world,we need to stop and survey whats going on and rid ourselves of the things that cause so much misery.

[IH8_Bush]

4. Peace sells, but who's buying?

[wingnut]

2. oh for pete's sake

I bet most of the guys onthis board played with little army men as kids, and they still turned out fine.

[G_j]

3. nice try

I assume you didn't play with this toy (at least not as a kid), just as I assume you didn't read the article. :think:

"Donald Rumsfeld Action Figure"

<snip>
"Rummy" is dressed in a black pin-stripped suit with white shirt, yellow tie and black shoes. The articulated figure stands on a special Department of Defense display base. The figure's features duplicate Rumsfeld's stoic, determined look, his gray hair and even comes with a set of glasses!

[tkmorris]

5. Nope, sorry

My rather ill-advised father bought me some for Christmas once, but that was in 1971. I had an older brother who knew quite a lot about the Vietnam War and as such I was better informed than your normal 6 year old at the time.

War sucked. War was where older brothers went to die for reasons that were never made clear. Army men were just reminders of that to me, and I never did play with em much. It's kinda funny too because we were absolutely inundated with war-glorification movies in that era and my parents let me watch em. I must've seen John Wayne et al kill a thousand Germans and Japanese. It didn't move me though; I LOVED my brother.

You know which war movie moved me then? I forget the title which is a shame but it depicted James Coburn marooned on a Pacific island with a single Japanese man late in WWII. Their initial distrust grew into cooperation and from their to genuine friendship. Seeing the enemy as just as human as we are struck a chord to me. It meant that those who were willing to see us die weren't the poor bastards with the different uniforms. It was the rich bastards at home who sent BOTH of us out to point guns at each other. It still is.

BTW anyone remember the title of that movie? It's high time my daughter saw it.

[joncofey1]

6. Oh by Golly

What for heavens sake are those lunatics thinking... May the goddess bless the poor beasts who might harbor the thoughts of buying their children those horrific toys.

Where is THE VILLAGE when we really need it!?x(

[soup]

7. Hell in the Pacific

The actors in this WWII drama, American Lee Marvin and Japanese Toshiro Mifune, both actually fought in the war - so you might expect their personal backgrounds to add a certain extra frisson to the potentially intriguing idea of having them play soldiers stranded on a tropical island together. It almost succeeds...
These two men, unnamed and unknown soldiers both, struggle against their training and patriotic loyalties, their respective ideologies, prejudices and fears getting in the way of basic survival traits as they forage and sweat, hide and stalk, and try to psych each other out. Primitive instincts dominate, while Mifune holds the beach and Marvin lives in the trees, until they overcome the language barrier. They fight. They grunt and scowl. Control of the only freshwater supply becomes a military objective. Their weapons are fire and sticks (Marvin has some bullets, but no gun). Each in turn is a prisoner of the other, but soon discovers that a PoW must be fed. Eventually, they cooperate long enough to build to raft.
http://www.videovista.net/reviews/dec03/hellpacific.html

Another good one along those lines is 'None But the Brave'.
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?PID=1262025&frm=sh_google

[wingnut]

9. I think it is

Hell in the Pacific.

Not entirely sure, though.

[PSR40004]

8. I have seen these...

When I saw them my first response was it was some sort of right winger thing but some things they say are used to make them sound funny. I have a hard time believing anyone would buy these for their kids...I still hope they fail I'd hate to see action figures of political figures from here on out as the norm.