That might seem innocuous since spectacular, high budget sporting events of all types are regular venues for airing new products, televisions shows and movies. But "Stars Earn Stripes" is not just another reality show. Hosted by retired four-star general Wesley Clark, the program pairs minor celebrities with US military personnel and puts them through simulated military training, including some live fire drills and helicopter drops. The official NBC website for the show touts "the fast-paced competition" as "pay homage to the men and women who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces and our first-responder services."
It is our belief that this program pays homage to no one anywhere and continues and expands on an inglorious tradition of glorifying war and armed violence. Military training is not to be compared, subtly or otherwise, with athletic competition by showing commercials throughout the Olympics. Preparing for war is neither amusing nor entertaining.
Real war is down in the dirt deadly. People-military and civilians-die in ways that are anything but entertaining. Communities and societies are ripped apart in armed conflict and the aftermath can be as deadly as the war itself as simmering animosities are unleashed in horrific spirals of violence. War, whether relatively short-lived or going on for decades as in too many parts of the world, leaves deep scars that can take generations to overcome—if ever.
Trying to somehow sanitize war by likening it to an athletic competition further calls into question the morality and ethics of linking the military anywhere with the entertainment industry in barely veiled efforts to make war and its multitudinous costs more palatable to the public.
The long history of collaboration between militaries and civilian media and entertainment-and not just in the United States-appears to be getting murkier and in many ways more threatening to efforts to resolve our common problems through nonviolent means. Active-duty soldiers already perform in Hollywood movies, "embedded" media ride with soldier in combat situations, and now NBC is working with the military to attempt to turn deadly military training into a sanitized "reality" TV show that reveals absolutely nothing of the reality of being a soldier in war or the consequences of war. What is next?
As people who have seen too many faces of armed conflict and violence and who have worked for decades to try to stop the seemingly unending march toward the increased militarization of societies and the desensitization of people to the realities and consequences of war, we add our voices and our support to those protesting "Stars Earn Stripes." We too call upon NBC stop airing this program that pays homage to no one, and is a massive disservice to those who live and die in armed conflict and suffer its consequences long after the guns of war fall silent.
Sincerely,
Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize, 1997
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize, 1977
Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize, 2003
President José Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize, 1996
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize, 1980
President Oscar Arias Sanchez, Nobel Peace Prize, 1987
Rigoberta Menchú Tum, 1992
Betty Williams, Nobel Peace Prize, 1977
Background:
RootsAction.org, Just Foreign Policy, Veterans For Peace, and Military Families Speak Out have launched a campaign at http://StarsEarnStripes.org targeting NBC's new program, "Stars Earn Stripes," which the network heavily advertised during its Olympics telecast. The show will debut today August 13th.
A protest will be held at 5 p.m. today outside NBC headquarters, on the North side of West 49th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues in New York City. Participating will be Military Families Speak Out, Veterans For Peace, the Granny Peace Brigade, Peace Action, and other peace groups. Participants will deliver a petition and the names of thousands who have signed it at http://StarsEarnStripes.org.
"This is particularly offensive given that six soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last week," said Joan Wile, leader of Grandmothers Against the War. "To feature the hazards of war as a game completely glosses over the reality of its horrors and is a slap in the face of our armed forces being killed and maimed on a regular basis in real wars."
Veterans For Peace President Leah Bolger said, "Retired General Wesley Clark should be ashamed of himself for his role in promoting this 'reality' show. He knows better than most that war is not a game played by contestants. In a promotion for the show, he tries to impress us with its realism '...live ammo, real explosions and real danger....' How ironic that PFC Bradley Manning has been in jail for more than two years for letting the public see the real truth of war, while NBC makes a profit out of making it into entertainment."
Military Families Speak Out Board Member Sarah Fuhro said, "Having my son return from two REAL wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the cost of war carried in his body and heart, I find this deeply offensive. Having met wounded children and refugees from these and other wars, I find this disgusting. I hope NBC will reconsider this form of entertainment."
Military Families Speak Out Member Anna Berlinrut said, "As the mother of a Marine about to deploy to Afghanistan for his 6th mission in harm's way, I find trivializing war to be horrendous and profit making from war to be a crime."
Just Foreign Policy's Robert Naiman said, "It's breathtakingly bizarre that NBC is promoting a 'reality TV series' glamorizing war at a time when 87,000 American soldiers are fighting in a real war in Afghanistan that lost the support of the majority of Americans a long time ago. If NBC wants to show Americans what war is really like, they should take their TV cameras to a military hospital, and ask the people they meet there what they think about keeping tens of thousands of American soldiers in Afghanistan indefinitely, or what they think of the plans of some people in Washington to start a new war with Iran."
RootsAction's Campaign Coordinator David Swanson said, "'Stars Earn Stripes' is a reality show cohosted by retired U.S. General Wesley Clark, co-starring Todd Palin, and with no apparent role for reality. The ads brag about the use of real bullets, but depict war as a harmless sport. Celebrities paired up with soldiers competing at 'long-range weapons fire' is not a continuation of the Olympics. It's a normalization of war that erases the death and suffering."
StarsEarnStripes.org is asking NBC to stop treating war as a sport, and to air an in-depth segment showing the reality of civilian victims of recent U.S. wars, on any program, any time in the coming months. RootsAction has provided some resources to help NBC research and show the reality of war, at http://StarsEarnStripes.org
The words "War Is Fun!" were added by the campaign into a promotional photo sent out by NBC.
RootsAction is an online initiative dedicated to galvanizing Americans who are committed to economic fairness, equal rights, civil liberties, environmental protection—and defunding endless wars. http://rootsaction.org