In a recent conversation with a struggling liberal screenwriter, I brought up the Clancy film as an example of Hollywood shying away from what really affects filmgoers--namely, the al Qaeda threat vs. the neo-Nazi threat. He vehemently defended the script switch. "It's an easy target," he said of Arab terrorism, repeating this like a parrot, then adding, "It's a cheap shot."A cheap shot? Kind of like making a movie about World War II without mentioning the Germans and Japanese. Or the Cold War without the Soviets. What is with some of us? I mean, even two Persian Gulf War movies I can think of (Three Kings and Courage Under Fire) were more about some Americans being the bad guys. Yet this guy thinks that avoiding calling Arab terrorism a problem--an enemy--is a cheap shot?
Look, we managed to convey that Germans were the bad guys without tainting German-Americans. We didn't do such a hot job with Japanese-Americans so I don't discount this problem. Indeed, I wrote to the president in 1990 to ask the president--as one of his soldiers who could be sent to war--to urge Americans to treat Arab-Americans as Americans. But over the past fourteen years we've managed to fight Moslem enemies without jailing or mistreating our Moslem or Arab countrymen.
Failure to call our enemies who are killing us our "enemies" for fear of tainting all Arabs or Moslems is stupid and counter-productive. Doesn't this tacitly say that our enemies and the loyal Arab- and Moslem-American here are one and the same? Why should all Arabs or Moslems be tied to the murderous behavior of a few? I am not personally offended by describing IRA members as terrorists even though I am half Irish. And I'd be offended if somebody thought that calling them terrorists would offend me because I am Irish! Personally, I think our Arab-American and Moslem-American citizens are loyal Americans. We can call our enemies what they are and still include all our citizens in the war.
The Coldstream Guards get it at least. British sergeant attempted to walk home drunk while wearing a suicide-bomber costume. While I concede (as did the regiment) that the soldier should not have alarmed the locals by doing this, he at least identified the enemy properly as the spokesman for the regiment said:
Given the perceived threat from terrorism, it was "perfectly fair" for soldiers to make fun of it, he said.
But of course, to make fun of it you have to identify it as part of the enemy. To my frustration, some can't bear to admit we have enemies.
So here's a handy guide:
Our enemies are those who are killing us and plotting to kill us. They happen to be Moslem.
Our citizens are targets of those trying to kill us. These include Arab- and Moslem-Americans.
Hollywood and their ideological ilk aren't helping Moslems by refusing to name our enemies.
