Hollywood, l’Irak et Noël

Comme en toutes choses et dans tous les domaines aux USA aujourd’hui, les traditions de civisme de commande exigé par le système connaissent un déclin dramatique. Le cas de Hollywood et du show-business est révélateur. Le climat général de désenchantement, d’individualisme égoïste, de corruption, etc., touche également un milieu qui avait toujours été très attentif à son “image” patriotique de soutien aux soldats, au-delà des engagements politiques. Même la guerre du Viet-nâm vit une activité USO importante malgré l’impopularité de la guerre.

Le soutien traditionnel du show-business aux soldats en guerre n’existe plus pour la guerre en Irak aujourd’hui. Au contraire, les attitudes constatées à cet égard sont la réserve, l’absence, la prudence, l’indifférence ou l’hostilité. USO (United Services Organization), qui administre cette forme de “théâtre aux armées” revu par les normes US depuis sa création en 1942, est en crise. En fait de célébrités, note The Guardian aujourd’hui, « soldiers in Iraq are more likely to get a show from a Christian hip-hop group, a country singer you have probably never heard of and two cheerleaders for the Dallas Cowboys.

» Just as the seemingly intractable nature of the war has led to a growing recruitment crisis, so the United Services Organisation, which has been putting on shows for the troops since the second world war, is struggling to get celebrities to sign up for even a short tour of duty.

» It is a far cry from the days following the September 11 2001 attacks, when some of the biggest names in show business, from Jennifer Lopez to Brad Pitt, rallied to the cause. “After 9/11 we couldn't have had enough airplanes for the people who were volunteering to go,” Wayne Newton, the Las Vegas crooner who succeeded Bob Hope as head of USO's talent recruiting effort, told USA Today. “Now with 9/11 being as far removed as it is, the war being up one day and down the next, it becomes increasingly difficult to get people to go.”

» Newton said many celebrities have been wary of going because they think it might be seen that they are endorsing the war. “And I say it's not. I tell them these men and women are over there because our country sent them, and we have the absolute necessity to try to bring them as much happiness as we can.” Fear is also a factor. “They're scared,” country singer Craig Morton, who is in Iraq on the USO's Hope and Freedom Tour 2005, told USA Today. “It's understandable. It's not a safe and fun place and a lot of people don't want to take the chance.” »

Mis en ligne le 24 décembre 2005 à 17H06