British brigadier attacks America's John Wayne generals

A senior British officer has criticised "shoulder-holster" American generals for trying to emulate film stars.

Brig Alan Sharpe, who worked alongside Americans in Baghdad, said there was a "strong streak of Hollywood" with officers trying to portray themselves as Sylvester Stallone or John Wayne.

He wrote the comments in a paper on Britain's influence on US foreign relations and the essay is likely to strain the "special relationship" further, coming after other British officers' criticism of the American approach.

An important part to being a successful American officer was to be able to combine the "real and acted heroics" of Audie Murphy, the "newsreel antics" of Gen Douglas MacArthur and the "movie performances" of Hollywood actors, the brigadier wrote.

Well obviously the Brigadier couldn't have been brought up with the BBC's Sunday afternoon movies, now could he? He must have been out rampaging around the countryside with the Boy Scouts or the Boy's Brigade learning actual skills rather than hypothetical ones he could have learned from the Hollywood movies. I mean John Wayne fought all the Pacific war battles and won the lot; Audey Murphy made a movie career out of his solo episodes in the European campaign; Sly and Arnie took on the gooks in Vietnam (the later even nuking an extraterrestrial). These were real heroes and the ones the 'Mericans idolise!

'Beetle Bailey' was only a comic character anyway!