The failure of Munich
I had high hopes for Stephen Spielberg's movie, Munich earlier in the year. But those high hopes were eroded with each passing month, when I learned more and more about how Steve was putting the movie together. He never researched into the PLO or Mossad, both of which offered to open up their archives for his film- and then went public with their consternation when they heard nothing but silence from Steve and his crew. And when thety found out that the movie was being based off of an old book from the 1980s called Vengeance, both sides agreed that the book was bad history, and crap. When you get Mossad and the PLO agreeing with each other on something- that counts for something. Lastly, the screenplay was written by Tony Kushner, who is an admitted far leftist who's been on record stating that he wished that Israel didn't exist. Oh, joyous of joys, that's all going to make me want to see the movie.
Well, to make a long story short, I won't be seeing the movie. I'm not happy with the moral equivalency that Spielberg plays with in the movie- the whole 'if you fight back you're no better than the terrorists are" mentality doesn't jive with me. For alot of good reactions towards the movie, check out Powerline's post here: http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012652.php.
I'll add a few cents to the arguements that are made at Powerline and the sites they also link to. The first is that if Spielberg's so intent on making the statement that "the good guys are no better than the bad guys" then what's the answer to that? He apparently never makes a case for how Israel- and America- should react towards terrorism. I don't think it's to give in to terror (although Kushner probably would want to), but if Spielberg's going to spend an entire film bitching about Israel's anti-terrorism policies (which are still in place today, btw), then he should at least attempt to find a solution to it. If he can't, then the film's just another film in the long laundry list of leftist films that don't have any answers to the problems we face in the modern world today, just alot of screaming and carrying on. That's not an arguement, Steve.
The other problem that I have is that we're beyond the stage where simply capturing terrorists doesn't work anymore. The Israelis- and people today- are dealing with a culture that doesn't respect being sent to jail as a true punishment. They're used to the centuries of tribal warfare which basically would have whole families wiped out in response to an aggrievement. Not jail time- systematic eradication of their bloodline. That's how they have learned to fight, and respect their opponents. I do believe that if you can jail them- and give them a life sentence (like they did with Carlos the Jackal) you can do good with it, but there are too many governments out there who are pussyfooting their own terrorism laws. Some get jailed for a few years, and are let free. And do more mayhem. That doesn't scare them, one bit. And sometimes the court of law is too slow to deal with people who are fighting a war- not a gang action- and they're more capable of eluding the police than the police are of being able to catch them. Thus the military option should always be on the table. In present day, the American or Israeli option would be to take out the Black September group before they could kill civilians- by any means necessary. They've stopped taking hostages in Iraq for a reason, folks. We locate and kill them where they stand. They respect nothing but force, and are seriously rethinking their strategy against the American military after our response to 9/11.
In the end, Steve, I'll just say this: don't go to Israel. Ever. They have long memories, and won't forget Munich. And they won't hesitate to make an example of you.
Well, to make a long story short, I won't be seeing the movie. I'm not happy with the moral equivalency that Spielberg plays with in the movie- the whole 'if you fight back you're no better than the terrorists are" mentality doesn't jive with me. For alot of good reactions towards the movie, check out Powerline's post here: http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012652.php.
I'll add a few cents to the arguements that are made at Powerline and the sites they also link to. The first is that if Spielberg's so intent on making the statement that "the good guys are no better than the bad guys" then what's the answer to that? He apparently never makes a case for how Israel- and America- should react towards terrorism. I don't think it's to give in to terror (although Kushner probably would want to), but if Spielberg's going to spend an entire film bitching about Israel's anti-terrorism policies (which are still in place today, btw), then he should at least attempt to find a solution to it. If he can't, then the film's just another film in the long laundry list of leftist films that don't have any answers to the problems we face in the modern world today, just alot of screaming and carrying on. That's not an arguement, Steve.
The other problem that I have is that we're beyond the stage where simply capturing terrorists doesn't work anymore. The Israelis- and people today- are dealing with a culture that doesn't respect being sent to jail as a true punishment. They're used to the centuries of tribal warfare which basically would have whole families wiped out in response to an aggrievement. Not jail time- systematic eradication of their bloodline. That's how they have learned to fight, and respect their opponents. I do believe that if you can jail them- and give them a life sentence (like they did with Carlos the Jackal) you can do good with it, but there are too many governments out there who are pussyfooting their own terrorism laws. Some get jailed for a few years, and are let free. And do more mayhem. That doesn't scare them, one bit. And sometimes the court of law is too slow to deal with people who are fighting a war- not a gang action- and they're more capable of eluding the police than the police are of being able to catch them. Thus the military option should always be on the table. In present day, the American or Israeli option would be to take out the Black September group before they could kill civilians- by any means necessary. They've stopped taking hostages in Iraq for a reason, folks. We locate and kill them where they stand. They respect nothing but force, and are seriously rethinking their strategy against the American military after our response to 9/11.
In the end, Steve, I'll just say this: don't go to Israel. Ever. They have long memories, and won't forget Munich. And they won't hesitate to make an example of you.
posted by Fafhrd1 | 8:27 AM
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