Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Moral equivalence: 1200 BC and today
The imminent release of Wolfgang Petersen's new epic "Troy" brought back the memories of Petersen's remarks early last year that "[t]he black-and-white mentality of a George W Bush is totally inappropriate for this film... I want the audience to be able to identify with both sides... This is not a Bush-style war of good versus evil."
An interesting comment about a situation where a Western power is provoked into a military invasion by the actions of a Middle Eastern statelet.
But back to Troy.
Thanks to Petersen, in case you are tired of all the comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, enjoy the one between the siege of Troy and the war on terror. Not that it wouldn't be interesting to see Petersen's nuanced, all shades of grey, epic take on the war on terror, possibly titled "Tora Bora." Dustin Hoffman as Osama bin Laden? A chimpanzee as President Bush? Queen Latifah as Condi Rice? The possibilities are endless.
By the same token, regardless of Petersen's nuanced approach to the rights and wrongs of the Trojan war, the tradition tells us that Trojans in the end got their asses kicked and their city was taken and destroyed. Let's hope for some non-nuanced parallels here with our war against al Quaeda.
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An interesting comment about a situation where a Western power is provoked into a military invasion by the actions of a Middle Eastern statelet.
But back to Troy.
Thanks to Petersen, in case you are tired of all the comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, enjoy the one between the siege of Troy and the war on terror. Not that it wouldn't be interesting to see Petersen's nuanced, all shades of grey, epic take on the war on terror, possibly titled "Tora Bora." Dustin Hoffman as Osama bin Laden? A chimpanzee as President Bush? Queen Latifah as Condi Rice? The possibilities are endless.
By the same token, regardless of Petersen's nuanced approach to the rights and wrongs of the Trojan war, the tradition tells us that Trojans in the end got their asses kicked and their city was taken and destroyed. Let's hope for some non-nuanced parallels here with our war against al Quaeda.
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