And one of our dimmer bulbs in Tinsel Town knows why viewers aren't going to see these movies:
Only veteran TV producer Steven Bochco comes remotely close to this point, when he observes that "World War II was hugely romanticized in terms of its fiction. There were unambiguous villains, and the feeling we were fighting the right people over the right issues, as opposed to this war, which many people feel is misguided."
Nazis, fascists, and militarists were unambiguous villains. Ok, I buy that. And "we" who were fighting these villains included the equally villainous Soviet Union.
But in the Iraq War we are not fighting unambiguous villains?
Let's see.
Baathists: Mass graves of victims, use of poison gas on Iranians and Kurds, plastic shredders for people, rape as a weapon, attempted extermination of Marsh Arabs by literally draining their swamp. These guys were so bad that international human rights groups had to officially take notice.
Al Qaeda: The authors of 9/11 sent their leaders to Iraq to organize some good Shia hunting and the killing of more Americans. They hate Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Americans, Shias, gays, free women, freedom of speech, Shias, and 98% of Sunni Moslems. They enjoy beheading enemies and suicide bombings, especially. For a while, they liked using chlorine bombs on Sunni Arabs who dared break with them.
Sunni Arab jihadis: Locals who could get into the whole Shia-killing and head-lopping programs and agree with the other basic hatreds of al Qaeda even though they weren't part of al Qaeda Prime in 2001.
Sunni Arabs: They supported all the Baathist killing and believe they deserve to rule and exploit the scum Shia, as they've done for centuries.
Shia death squads supported by Iran: They enjoyed going out at night and killing Sunnis by shooting them in the head. Their Iranian sponsors should get their own heading, and distinguish themselves as being at war with us since they took our embassy and continuing with bombings against us in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Killing Jews from Argentina to Gaza and Lebanon is also part of their mission.
Excuse me for noticing this, but these bastards are darn near comic book-level evil villains.
What would it take for Bochco to think these scum are unambiguously villains? What it would it take for his colleagues to stop romanticizing our fictionalized enemies in their stories?
And we've freed these people, for Pete's sake! Giving them a chance for a future and freedom? Yeah, those are suspicious goals, Steve.
Hey, maybe Bochco is suffering from the writers' strike and was just winging it on his own.
That would explain a lot. Misguided, indeed.
UPDATE: And no post on how some of our own citizens see the enemy as the good guys and our troops as the bad guys would be complete without a slam on our media:
As Bing West has observed, “there will be no true glory for our soldiers in Iraq until they are recognized not as victims, but as aggressive warriors. Stories of their bravery deserve to be recorded and read by the next generation. Unsung, the noblest deeds will die.” On this Veterans Day, media folk predisposed to believe the worst about the American fighting man when the evidence is so clearly in his favor need to get out and meet a few more.
Our troops are fighting--and defeating--enemies who are as evil as you can get without a script. And our media empires still don't have a clue about who the bad guys are.
