A regular feature of my old blog, I’m trying to get back into the idiot of highlighting one idiot (or group of idiots) every day.  Some will be obvious (I’ve no doubt Hillary Clinton will earn a mention) and some will be less so – a constant reminder that fame, fortune and power are not necessarily prerequisites for foolishness.

In this case, though, the offender is whichever fool at Paramount believed that they could shame the memory of G.I. Joe by changing his identity for an upcoming movie.  Variety magazine reports that “G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer. “  Apparently, the studio was concerned that it would be difficult to market a movie about American soldiers to an international audience.  Seriously, this has the potential to be a great movie.  We might get some fast-paced diplomatic negotiations, culminating in some tough sanctions against countries that harbor Scottish arms dealer, and, if we’re really lucky, some classic Hollywood soul-searching (perhaps an oxymoron, certainly moronic) about whether fighting is ever worth it, with a key character realizing that no one is really evil, just misunderstood, as the special effects blaze around him (or, for ultimate PC points, her).

Vin Suprynowicz (try spelling that ten times fast) has a great op-ed at the Las Vegas Review Journal about the man whose face was on the original G.I. Joe action figure.  A quick preview:

Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige’s platoon. Every one. As the night of endless attacks wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.

No Hollywood screenwriter could hope to match the real stories of courage, defeat, bloodshed and heroism that spring forth in times of war.  But they’ll damn well try, and in their efforts to avoid offending their international audiences, they’ll water-down and special-effects-up a Real American Hero.