May 3, 2009

(Amyerika) - I have just finished watching (again) the excellent movie, Rules of Engagement (2000), by Director William Friedkin, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. Because of the subject matter, this brilliantly acted and directed film got no recognition at all - was even called "racist" by all the people who are currently saying there's no such thing as an Islamicist terrorist. In so many ways, this film, in the theatre and in real life, is so instructive.

To begin with, the author of the book about a real incident in the middle east, during the Clinton administration (the names changed to protect the state department, for which he worked) is now a Progressive senator from Virginia, James Webb. Webb, at the time, was outraged that Clinton had so besmirched the Marines, that he vented a lot of vitriol in the subject. He has since denied all of it, but there are articles written, before his memory loss, that argue for this scenario.

Like so much which occurred in the Clinton administration, papers have disappeared and evidence is now missing. But to say that such things have not or do not occur, is to deny the evidence of Vietnam, Campuchia (Red Cambodia), and North Korea. Women, children, men dressed as women, do fire on troops and do kill people. Cynical foes of American freedom do count on the soft-heartedness of the people who let others fight for them to do their defaming for them.

With that said, the plot is not only believable, but portrayed accurately as we have seen over and over again from the savagery of sectarian extremists in Iraq. Friedkin was prescient.

The battle scenes are every bit as accurate as those of Blackhawk Down. The courtroom scenes are riveting. Every step of the way, the audience is led to a conclusion that to be an honorable Marine is to be a hopeless puppet of the government.