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CounterPunch
January
22, 2003
The Return of
John Rambo
Smoking Out
Bin Laden
By KURT NIMMO
If Bush can't kill bin Laden in real life, he
might as well have Rocky do it in the movies. Showbiz reporter
for the UK Sun Online, Jacqui Smith, says the 56 year old Sylvester
Stallone will once again bring the Rambo character to life, this
time to fight the forces of evil, namely the Taliban and Osama
bin Laden. Stallone was so keen to see bin Laden brought to justice
-- something Bush is unable or unwilling to do -- he wrote the
script himself. Initially, the aging Sly was scripted to kill
the Evil One all on his lonesome, but he had second thoughts
because, as a Hollywood type told the Sun, the actor "thought
that was beyond the imagination," which is to say, I suppose,
the idea of a middle aged Rambo doing what the US military was
unable (or not permitted) to do in the span of more than a year
is "beyond the imagination."
Nonetheless, Americans need closure on
the bin Laden thing, and if the US military can't deliver justice
maybe Hollywood can, at least on the big screen. Millions of
Americans will trek enthusiastically to mall cinemas far and
wide to indulge vicariously in the murderous and patriotic rampages
of John Rambo (who in an earlier movie went back to Vietnam to
finish what Johnson and Nixon didn't have the balls to see through).
Rambo will slaughter the straggling Taliban and al-Qaeda bad
guys Rumsfeld overlooked. No laser-guided missiles or JDAMs needed,
no bunker busters or cluster bombs designed to resemble food
packages required -- Rambo will do the job himself and not one
innocent citizen will fall victim to "collateral damage."
Rambo will hunt down and smoke out the Omars of this world and
kill each and every last one with his bare hands, no pansy-ass
Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles needed. It will
be justice delivered 70mm cowboy style. No doubt Miramax, makers
of the original Rambo movie, are anticipating handsome returns
at the box office.
Stallone and Miramax, however, are a
little behind the curve. In the months since 911, bin Laden has
slipped under the Bushite radar screen, especially now that they
have their sights fixed on Iraq and its bounteous oil fields.
If Hollywood is sincerely interested in producing a topical movie,
they'd have Rambo parachuting into Baghdad under the cover of
darkness with a grenade launching AK47 slung over his shoulder,
bayonet clenched between his teeth, and his naked chest crisscrossed
with teflon hollowpoint cartridge belts (a few depleted uranium
shells thrown in for good measure). Rambo would sneak into one
of Saddam's many palatial residences and slit his throat while
he dreams of Nebuchadnezzar. But then, considering no intelligence
service or covert op team has been able to get anywhere near
the slippery Iraqi dictator -- not with Saddam's al-Bu Nasir
praetorian guards lurking about -- this scenario may be even
more "beyond the imagination" than the idiotic bin
Laden idea. But then idiotic movies are Hollywood's stock and
trade.
But why stop with Rambo in Afghanistan
or Iraq making toast and just deserts of America's enemies? Miramax
may want to hire a swarm of scriveners to write any number of
"prequels" to the bin Laden bedtime story. How about
"Bill Casey Goes to Afghanistan," a movie about how
the CIA and Pakistan's ISI single-handedly created the Mujahideen
-- trained them by the thousands in the art of bomb-making (some
lucky enough to make it to the CIA's retreat in Virginia) and
financed them handsomely -- and then turned the wild-eyed Muslim
fanatics loose not only on the hapless Soviets but the world
of infidels at large. Or maybe an epic on Bush Senior's first
Iraq attack is in order. Imagine John Rambo blowing up the An
Nasiriyah chemical warehouse in Iraq in advance of US ground
troops arriving, thus saving thousands of red-blooded American
boys and girls from Gulf War Syndrome. Maybe casting would be
able to entice April Glaspie into a cameo role. Or Tarek Aziz.
Somebody needs to see if Tom Clancy's available to write the
script.
Truly, we Americans live in a land of
unending absurdity and ignorance. Hollywood knows its game well
enough to understand that a movie where bin Laden and assorted
al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives are hunted down and killed by
a lone wolf all-American mercenary will be a good investment
(no matter if Stallone is pushing 60; John Wayne was offing various
gooks, injuns, and mobsters on the big screen well into his 60s).
Just as the mild antiwar second thoughts of the soldiers portrayed
in Mark Bowden's book Black Hawk Down were cut when Hollywood
made it into a movie, Miramax's effort will be devoid of any
historical or political context or appraisal. Americans do not
cotton to such glaring realities in their blood-drenched fantasies
where the Good always prevail and the Bad are brought to justice.
Nor will there be scenes of disemboweled wedding guests near
the village of Deh Rawud, no portrayals of slaughtered Taliban
prisoners at Mazar-i-Sharif, no sweeping pans of starving refugees
massed at the borders of Pakistan and Iran seeking to escape
US military bombardment. In the Great American Fantasy, the Good
and the Bad slug it out on the tundra (or deep within remote
jungles), far away from babies, grandmothers, and humanitarian
workers. Of course, as in a previous John Rambo movie, a peacenik
or two might get slugged in the face. Serves 'em right for going
up against the Good and Righteous.
As John Rambo represents a grotesque
cardboard personage, so does the unelected and increasingly acerbic
(and detestable) president George W. Bush. Junior told the American
people in his dim-witted and unimaginative way a few short months
ago the perps of 911 are "wanted dead or alive" and
would be hunted down and smoked out like renegade Comanche who
terrorize womenfolk and scalp god-fearing sodbusters. Go forward
a few months in time. Now bin Laden's name is never mentioned
and the half-ass dictator Saddam Hussein (when compared to any
number of US-supported dictators, say Indonesia's Suharto or
Chile's Pinochet) has inherited bin Laden's iniquitous cloak
of unquestionable evil. The former CIA asset bin Laden served
his purpose for Dubya and his clatch of empire-mad neocons who
are attempting to create their own renovated version of Manifest
Destiny on a global scale. Only this time the natives will not
stay on the reservation. This time around they will not be easily
cowed into pitiful submission.
If Bush is allowed to bring his war to
the people of the Middle East (and Central Asia, South America,
and wherever else people resist the brutal encroachment of empire)
the ensuing cataclysm will be of truly historic proportions.
Our children will not sing great songs, as the neocon Richard
Perle would have it, but mournful laments. Not only will oil
wells burn and millions of people die horrible deaths in far
away lands but war will spread like wildfire to the tinderbox
shores of America. The police state Bush has in mind for the
American people will not stop it. No way are there enough Marines,
Army Rangers, Delta Forces, Seal Teams, Special Forces, CIA operatives
to contain its spread and wrathful violence.
Not even John Rambo will make America
feel good about itself in the aftermath.
Kurt Nimmo
is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces, New
Mexico. Visit his excellent online
gallery. He can be reached at: nimmo@zianet.com
We highly recommend regular visits to
Nimmo's website, Another
Day in the Empire
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January 11
/ 12, 2003
Omar al-Qattan
How
Muhammad Migrated to America
Saul Landau
"The Coup Lacked Professionalism"
David Bloom & Bill Weinberg
Palestinian Solidarity Activists
Subcomandante
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Zapatistas to Invade Spain!
Gary Leupp
Gallic Nukes
Carl Estabrook
Democracy or Corporations?
Annie Higgins
Life Story of the Olives
Lenni Brenner
CIA as Art Patron
Kevin Summers
Australia Will Be There!
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Poets' Basement
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|