Unrelated
Tonight, I had the patience to wait through the ads and watch "The Siege" on TNT with Denzel Washington. I've watched it before, but tonight it just struck me how out of touch hollywood is with reality. For those of you who haven't watched the movie, the plot is simple: terrorists start bombing New York on a massive scale, the fbi tries to stop the bombings, fails, and the army is brought in. Obviously, this movie is pre-9/11, and it's plot loosely resembles the situation in post-9/11 New York... Terrorist attack by Muslims on the terror watch list that made it in anyways, young arab muslim bombers, lots of Americans killed, yada yada... Anyhow, the movie makes several assumptions (about America) that, with the advantage of hindsight, we can compare to reality.
1) Assumption: Massive hatecrimes against Muslims. Reality check: there was something like ONE vigilante killing against a Muslim after Sept 11.
2) Assumption: Muslim groups (specifically in the movie, the "anti-defamation league"), despite so-called "discrimination" against them, would largely denounce the terrorist attacks and support our continued war on terror. Reality check: Muslim groups were largely mute (of course there where a few exceptions, the "anti-defamation league" not one of them) and continue to work today to question the validity of the war on terror.
3) Assumption: The American people would call on the president to impliment marshal law after a large attack. Reality check: It didn't happen. And no one even considered it.
4) Assumption: It's more effective to fight terror at home as a police operation than to go abroad and find the instigators. That's right, Hollywood really thinks this. In the movie, during a "meeting" of top cabinet members and senators (what are senators doing in a cabinet meeting anyways?) the idea of finding those responsible abroad was dimissed with the lame excuse of it being "too hard to find out who really responsible". Reality check: OBVIOUSLY this adminstration's policy of decapitating the terrorist leadership has worked well, because despite frankly dismal security here at home (the open border with mexico as an example), we still haven't had another major attack.
5) Assumption: The president would order the military to occupy New York, the military would really follow that order, detain large numbers of people, and summarily execute suspected terrorists. Reality check: not only has it not happened it will not happen in the near future. Who do you think the military is made of? Your neighbor's son, that's who. The military is pretty close to the people, and from the stories I've seen coming out of Iraq and Afganistan it is composed largely of men who hold their duty and honor to protect America, it's people, and their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a much higher regard than many of the people here in America who get to enjoy those rights every day.
Well there you go, Hollywood out of touch again. But I'm sure it's obvious to most. :)
Btw, sorry about the spelling and any gramatical errors. It's late so I'm going to look it over in the morning.
1) Assumption: Massive hatecrimes against Muslims. Reality check: there was something like ONE vigilante killing against a Muslim after Sept 11.
2) Assumption: Muslim groups (specifically in the movie, the "anti-defamation league"), despite so-called "discrimination" against them, would largely denounce the terrorist attacks and support our continued war on terror. Reality check: Muslim groups were largely mute (of course there where a few exceptions, the "anti-defamation league" not one of them) and continue to work today to question the validity of the war on terror.
3) Assumption: The American people would call on the president to impliment marshal law after a large attack. Reality check: It didn't happen. And no one even considered it.
4) Assumption: It's more effective to fight terror at home as a police operation than to go abroad and find the instigators. That's right, Hollywood really thinks this. In the movie, during a "meeting" of top cabinet members and senators (what are senators doing in a cabinet meeting anyways?) the idea of finding those responsible abroad was dimissed with the lame excuse of it being "too hard to find out who really responsible". Reality check: OBVIOUSLY this adminstration's policy of decapitating the terrorist leadership has worked well, because despite frankly dismal security here at home (the open border with mexico as an example), we still haven't had another major attack.
5) Assumption: The president would order the military to occupy New York, the military would really follow that order, detain large numbers of people, and summarily execute suspected terrorists. Reality check: not only has it not happened it will not happen in the near future. Who do you think the military is made of? Your neighbor's son, that's who. The military is pretty close to the people, and from the stories I've seen coming out of Iraq and Afganistan it is composed largely of men who hold their duty and honor to protect America, it's people, and their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a much higher regard than many of the people here in America who get to enjoy those rights every day.
Well there you go, Hollywood out of touch again. But I'm sure it's obvious to most. :)
Btw, sorry about the spelling and any gramatical errors. It's late so I'm going to look it over in the morning.
posted by fm_illuminatus at 4:34 AM
2 Comments:
Very good points...now I'll have to watch that stupid movie again.
Hi,
Just thought I'd let you know that the address of my blog has changed. Going forward, I'll be posting to my new site -- www.theurbangrindblog.com. So if you could please update your blogroll when you have a chance, I'd be much obliged.
Thanks!
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