Army Green Beret slams Gwyneth Paltrow in scathing essay

December 2, 2013. Gwyneth Paltrow poses at the British Fashion Awards in London. (Reuters)

A US Army Green Beret has hit out at Gwyneth Paltrow in a scathing essay after the actress compared enduring Internet haters to the ravages of war reports The New York Post.

Sergeant First Class Bryan Sikes, who suffered a broken neck and back in a 2008 IED explosion in Afghanistan, was infuriated by the actress’ idiotic comment comparing negative online comments to being at war during a tech conference this week.
She whined, “You come across [online comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it’s a very dehumanizing thing … It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing, and then something is defined out of it.”

Sikes seethed in an open letter to Paltrow on ClashDaily.com, “I can only imagine the difficulty of waking up in a 12,000 square foot Hollywood home and having your assistant retrieve your iPhone, only to see that the battery is low and someone on twitter (the social media concept that you and all of your friends contribute to on an hourly basis to feed your ego and narcissistic ways), has written a mean word or 2 about you.

You’ve hit the nail on the head, war is exactly like that. You should receive a medal for the burden you have carried on your shoulders due to these meanies on social media.”

Sikes continued: “I could see how you, and others like you in “the biz,” could be so insecure and mentally weak that you could pair the difficulty of your life on twitter to my brothers who have had their limbs ripped off and seen their friends shot, blown up, burned and disfigured, or wake up every morning in pain—while just starting the day is a challenge.

“You know what is really ‘dehumanizing’, Miss Paltrow? The fact that you’d even consider that your life as an “A-list” celebrity reading internet comments could even compare to war and what is endured on the battlefield.”

He summarized: “Let me be the first to burst your bubble: a long line at Starbucks, your driver being 3 minutes late, a scuff mark on your $1200 shoes and a mean tweet do not constitute difficulty in the eyes of a soldier.”

Paltrow, and her rep, have yet to respond.

Sikes, a Minnesota native, enlisted in the armed forces in 2005 and was awarded a Green Beret two years later. While serving in Afghanistan in 2008 he suffered severe injuries when an SUV he was traveling in rolled over an IED in Southeastern Kabul. He says the attack left him with a broken back, broken neck and shrapnel in his leg.

In an interview with ClashDaily.com last year Sikes commented on dealing with negative social media.

“It’s laughable to think because someone didn’t click like on a Facebook picture, that I’m going to get twisted about it. I’ve got bigger things to worry about. My wife and kids mean more to me than anyone else will. I can care less about what else is going on and the vanity of everything. I don’t have time for it.”