I finally got to see “American Sniper” at the 3:55 show at our local Malibu movie house after two earlier tries had failed because the theater was already sold out. I went to see what the buzz was all about as much as I wanted to see the film. I will confess, I’m a Clint Eastwood fan and “American Sniper” is very much in the genre. It’s sort of like “Dirty Harry” in camos. It’s clear who the good guys are. They’re the ones in the uniforms — the coordinated camos — with standardized, high-tech equipment, humvees and tanks, also in a kind of desert tan.
Our troops and the lead, Bradley Cooper, are all young, fit, patriotic and deeply committed to protecting each other, no matter what the cost. The enemy is all dark and swarthy, with a rag-tag assortment of clothing and weapons, and driving around in old Toyotas, but what’s clear is they can, and will, fight. The local population is unsympathetic and not to be trusted, as they all seem to be either fanatics or collaborators with the insurgents or bad guys. You could never quite figure out who the opposition was, whether Sunni or Shias, local warlords, or independents, and precisely who we were fighting, but, truthfully, it didn’t matter much. This was a story about Americans, American bravery and the bonding of Americans in war, which, I suspect, is why people are going to see it. It makes you feel good. There is black and there is white. There are good guys and bad guys. The problem is that it’s a fantasy … a well-crafted fantasy, by a skillful director, who knows where the nation is emotionally and just how to tap into that fantasy.
Reality is a lot more complex and a lot harder to fathom. Bear with me, because I’m going to take you to another war — this one in today’s Syria. The insurgents (meaning anyone who is in favor of getting rid of Assad), the President of Syria and his entire coterie of allies, including many Shia volunteers from all over the world, have been trying, with mixed success, to get rid of Assad for the last four years. Assad is backed by Iran and their local surrogate, Hezbollah, which occupies Southern Lebanon and is currently fighting in Syria, alongside Assad loyalists. The opposition (those trying to get Assad out) is backed by many of the major oil powers of the Mideast, particularly Saudi Arabia and some other Persian Gulf powers. They also have Sunni volunteers streaming to fight the Assad. So far, it’s pretty much business as usual.
Now, we have all the Western powers standing around trying to figure who they want to back while they look for the democracy-loving insurgents who want to get rid of Assad and install a Western democracy. Sadly, they don’t exist. However, that hasn’t really slowed us down, so, although we are loath to put boots on the ground, we are lending air support to the campaign. Add in ISIL, which appears to be mad at just about everyone and to prove it keep video taping themselves cutting off heads, as they try to re-establish a Caliphate that probably never existed.
Now it gets really twisted. Monday the NY Times reported that Israel, which has almost stayed out of the Syrian Civil War, blew up a car or two in a helicopter missile attack on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. They killed five from Hezbollah and an unnamed Iranian, who later turned out to be an Iranian general. Hezbollah was deeply upset because, apparently, it upset a tacit understanding between Israel and Hezbollah that they would not attack each other while the Syrian Civil War was going on, or some such deal. Understand that Israel and Hezbollah are sworn enemies and Hezbollah’s publically stated goal is to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. Apparently Israel feels that it’s in its best interest to keep Hezbollah fighting Assad, who has often given a home to anti-Israel terrorists, and Hezbollah, as much as they hate Israel, is not above making a deal with them when something more important comes along, like trying to knock off Assad.
About all you can say about all this is that the operational rule appears to be that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” at least for today. For tomorrow? Who knows.
P.S. I much prefer Clint Eastwood’s good guys and bad guys. It is so much easier to figure out.