NOW THOSE WERE STARS TODAY'S ACTORS FIGHT ONLY THOUGHT OF WAR, NOT WAR ITSELF.

Byline: Scott Holleran Local View

MCI is waffling over whether the troubled telecommunications giant will dump spokesman Danny Glover, the pacifist actor who sparked a public outcry with his comments about war and terrorism.

Glover, who starred in four ``Lethal Weapon'' movies, recently said he had not heard anything negative from MCI.

That's unfortunate.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attack by Islamic terrorists, Glover said America is responsible for terrorism. (Speech at Princeton University, The Trentonian, Associated Press, Nov. 16, 2001.)

Glover belongs to Win Without War, a group which rejects America's right to strike an enemy, such as states that sponsor jihad Moslems, before the enemy strikes us.

Not long ago, Glover's anti-American views were the opposite of those held by some of Hollywood's greatest actors.

Take Jimmy Stewart. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Stewart became the first star to enlist, talking his way into the Air Force after being refused based on his weight (he was too thin).

Stewart flew 20 combat missions, commanded a squadron, became a colonel and earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross and seven battle stars.

After the war, Stewart continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve. He became the highest-ranking entertainer in the American military: brigadier general.

Stewart had company. At age 41, Clark Gable enlisted as a low-ranking private in the Army Air Corps. For Gable's efforts, which included bombing missions and spying on Nazis, he was targeted for assassination by the Third Reich.

Gable's wife, actress Carole Lombard, died in a plane crash while selling war bonds - after she had raised $2.5 million.

Hollywood stars who supported the war - not just ``the troops'' - included Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, director John Ford, who proudly made war propaganda movies (Ford was also wounded during the Battle of Midway), and Leslie Howard, who played Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind.

Howard returned to his native England to defend Britain, where he died when his plane was shot down by the Nazis.

The Nazis also tried (and failed) to reclaim German-born actress Marlene Dietrich, who renounced Germany after Adolf Hitler was elected in 1933.

Dietrich rejected Hitler's plea that she return to the Fatherland and she steadfastly supported the United States by performing for American troops, reportedly as close to the front as she could get.

And Actress Hedy Lamarr's war acts are legendary. The Austrian native (who played sensual Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's ``Samson and Delilah'') detested National Socialism.

When she learned that her husband, a German arms dealer, had become involved with the Nazis, Lamarr drugged her maid and escaped. Lamarr, who did not attend college, later collaborated with a composer and inventor named George Antheil. Together, the pair created technology for radio-controlled torpedoes - an idea that is the basis for modern mobile communications.

With few exceptions, today's stars oppose war - apparently, any war, for any reason - despite an insidious attack more barbaric than Japan's strike at Pearl Harbor.

Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn are among the familiar voices for pacifism, but there are also actors whose motion pictures profit from war: Matt Damon (``Saving Private Ryan''), Laurence Fishburne (``Apocalypse Now'') and Glover, who played a commander in ``Flight of the Intruder,'' a captain in ``Operation Dumbo Drop'' and a sergeant in ``Buffalo Soldiers,'' a TV movie about an all-black cavalry troop that he executive-produced.

If there was any doubt that the culture is deteriorating, Hollywood offers incontrovertible evidence. It only took 60 years for Hollywood to stop producing artists who put their lives and fortunes at risk to protect the only nation based on rights - a nation created by a revolutionary war.

Hollywood giants once offered acts of heroism during war; today's actors offer the opposite. With the nation that created Hollywood confronted by evil, instead of coming to her defense, those who dominate Hollywood activism proclaim it is America, not her enemies, who are evil.

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Photo:

Pacifist actor Danny Glover, center takes part in an anti-war protest in San Francisco in March.

Jakub Mosur/Associated Press