It's All So Complicated

Films show terrorists as people
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY Wed Dec 21, 6:45 AM ET

Clooney, who produced Syriana, says the trend stems largely from growing American displeasure with the Iraq war.

"I've been called a traitor for questioning the war," he says. "But more people are beginning to look critically at what our government is doing, who we're fighting. And that's the most patriotic thing you can do."

You're not a traitor if you question the war, or look critically at your government. You cross the line of treason when your words or actions damage your country and countrymen. When your worldview is based on the premise that America has been wrong about most things, most of the time, and you see it as a perpetrator of evil rather than a proponent of good, and that this is the root cause of everything that is wrong in the world - then pardon me for pointing it out but you are a traitor. Not being a traitor doesn't automatically make you a patriot. The next time you or your Hollywood jetsetting friends are traveling the world and you're standing in front of a crowd of American-hating foreigners try telling them you love your country and explain why rather than joining in their bashing. That would be patriotic.

Syriana, for example, "simply doesn't want to paint things in black and white, because the world isn't that way," Clooney says. "The world is complicated, and good movies try to show that."

How about a good movie that explores the complicated roots of terror? Not more "religion of peace" apologia. Show them as people. What do they believe? What are their goals? A documentary or two about Islam would be nice. How it started, how it spread; a view backward that doesn't stop at the Crusades, or colonialism. What are the core beliefs of the various Islamic sects? Why are there so many terror groups? It's all so complicated, we need Hollywood to help us understand.

Don't hold your breath.

Via LGF.