Petraeus's remarks are of course meant to stiffen the spine of those Republican factions who fear their electoral re-election prospects if things don't work out. Petraeus was the man sent to stiffen it for them. I am not saying that he was lying in his remarks, just that, of course, he was going to say what he said. He didn't have to clear it through the WHite House. The WHite House knew what his report would be when they put hi in charge of the Surge to begin with. Luckily for the White House, it worked as good as it did. I am not believing for one minute Petraeus was lying.
Unfortunately for the White House, it just did not work well enough. The country will remain as divided as it has been for now these four and a half years. The only difference is, the balance is tilting toward the left, as it has year after year. And the longer it drags on, the more it will continue to drift to the left.
The left wants the job over. The right wants the job done. See the distinction? The American public at large-not the party bases or fringes, just the average American voter-would prefer it be done right, but more importantly, they just want it over and done with.
Iraq is one issue that is to me too complicated to solve with a sound bite or a pre-packaged political position. There is too much at stake, and the political aspects of the war are as profoundly disturbing as any other aspect of it, maybe more so. We are, in effect, as a nation ripped apart by this war. That is all I know for sure.
Well, I do know one other thing. I know who should have been sent to Iraq.
I know who should have been sent to Iraq, but it never happened. He would have been one hell of a morale booster had he been sent. He could have single-handedly busted an Al-Queda cell bent on destruction, and might have saved captured prisoners held as hostages.
He could have taken on the Mahdi Army and sent them all running in fear of their lives.
However, don’t think for one minute he would have been a mindless automaton. He would have gone after corrupt bureaucrats in not only the Iraqi government, but would have eagerly busted extortion rackets conducted by self-serving American contractors.
Unfortunately, it’s too late for all that now. He’s dead. Shot down by a sniper working in conjunction with his own brainwashed lover, outside of a federal courthouse in Manhatten.
Even fans of Captain America were so divided over the Iraq War, Marvel Comics knew they couldn’t possibly have pleased both sides.
Liberal fans wanted the company to portray Cap as an outspoken critic of the Bush White House, lamenting US involvement in the Iraq War and the allegedly deceptive way Bush manipulated us into the conflict. Conservative fans of the comic book hero, however, urged he be used in pretty much the same fashion he was used during World War II, during which at one point sales of Captain America, published by what was then known as Timely Comics, outsold Time Magazine.
Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created him specifically as a rallying cry against Hitler’s Nazi regime in 1941. The first issue appeared months before Pearl Harbor. The cover portrayed Cap punching Adolf Hitler* square in the face. From that point on, Captain America and his teenage partner Bucky were stalwart defenders of American values and justice against the Nazi menace.
After the war, the strip ended, though there were several unsuccessful attempts to revive the character in the late forties and early fifties. His return in the early sixties revealed he had been frozen in Arctic ice in a state of suspended animation since just before the end of the war, due to an incident that cost the life of friend and partner Bucky (who was finally revived years later as “Winter Soldier”). The less successful late forties and early fifties returns eventually were explained as attempts by well-meaning imitators to keep the Captain America legend alive.
He fought as the eventual leader of The Avengers (who rescued him from suspended animation) and in his own strip, where for a while he shared equal billing with Iron Man before going on to star in his own full length adventure series.
His major villain was The Red Skull, an old Nazi adversary who also was in suspended animation for decades. He as well rose from a decade’s long sleep to perpetrate yet more evil. In the end, the Skull took his life through the auspices of a hired assassin, Crossbones, though the fatal shot was fired by the hypnotized Sharon Carter, his long time on-again, off-again lover.
Captain America had resisted American government efforts to register all persons with super powers. This effort lead to a civil war in which heroes who supported the measure fought against others, like Cap, who did not. In the end, Cap decided to call off the war. He was on his way to testify in federal court when he was shot and killed. After the funeral, the Avengers and Namor, the Sub-Mariner, secretly returned his body to the Arctic ice from which they rescued him decades before. Namor, at times heroic, at times villainous, is now on good terms with the Avengers, and swore no one would disturb the sleep of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America. It was Namor, by the way, who discovered Cap’s ice-encapsulated body, worshiped by an indigenous Arctic tribe. The Avengers pursued him at the time, and when he tossed the frozen body into the ocean, they found it.
Of course, Marvel will eventually revive him, as they did once before. Captain America’s origin is as follows-Steve Rogers, as a young man of weak physique and poor health who wanted to do what he could for his country, yet being physically unfit for military duty, was chosen as a guinea pig in an experiment. He received a series of injections and oral ingestions, and subjection to a series of ray particle bombardments that transformed him almost within a mater of minutes into a “super soldier”. Unfortunately, the scientist who concocted the experiment had committed the formula to memory in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Following the experiment, a rather ridiculously and obviously dressed “Agent X” appeared in a trench coat with dark glasses and assassinated him.
Rogers’ identity was known but to a few, including Franklin Roosevelt, who presented him with a shield, made of a fusion of a steel alloy and “vibranium”, and which was almost indestructible. In addition to use as a defensive shield, he used the discus shaped implement as an offensive weapon, by throwing it, sometimes in ricochet fashion. The formula also transformed his speed and reflexes, as well as his strength, to the peak of human perfection.
Not long before his death, the formula used on Rogers turned out to have actually been a manufactured or mutated virus of some sort, and was the same basic virus, in modified format, that resulted in the creation of the X-Men hero Wolverine. The healing, regenerative capability of the virus provided an explanation for the ability of Rogers to languish in the ice in suspended animation. I have no doubt the virus will eventually be used as an excuse to revive him in the future-way in the future, evidently, after the Iraqi War has either been settled, or has become not quite the divisive issue that it is today.
That’s too bad, really. Like I said before, what would be the more perfect place for Captain America than in Iraq. He could play both sides, really, and stand as a unifying force.
*He could have fought crooked greedy contractors in addition to Iraqi insurgents and terrorists.
*He could have protected innocent Iraqi civilians from the few rogue soldiers that might abuse them, while making clear that these few examples are not the norm, not the typical American soldier, and most assuredly do not represent the best of American values.
*He could address the issue of the constant stress of multiple deployments that take their toll on even the most hardened, capable veteran. He could involve himself in the demands for adequate treatment of wounded veterans.
He could do all these things and more, and at the same time remain the same symbolic figure of true American patriotism he has always been. An antagonist caught up in the war, unsure of the rightness or wrongness of various aspects of it, yet at the same time, loyal to his country and its values.
The potential storylines could have been endless.
He could have avenged the rape of a young Iraqi girl, and then protected her from the wrath of her father, who might feel she has brought ‘dishonor” on the family. He could have addressed other aspects of Islamic culture in such a way that might be educational, without being either apologetic or demeaning
He could have run-ins with treacherous Sunnis and Shia’s, and valorous Sunnis and Shia’s as well. He could find himself in Fallujah, in Anbar province, and among the Kurds. There would be so many plot potentials it staggers the imagination.
Of course, it would be controversial. The best comic books usually are. It was Marvel who lead the way-and DC quickly followed-in revolving storylines around social issues, such as drug abuse and racism, and eventually even rape, child abuse, and homosexuality.
Instead of this, unfortunately, Marvel wussed out, on what is arguably the major issue of our time. They didn’t want to offend any of their readers, so they took the cowards way out. WTF? If they had just thought it out, they could have sold more Captain America comics than has been sold since the earliest days of World War II.
Ironically, that would have been the best way to finally kill him off, in the middle of the Iraqi Civil War, fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, so to speak-for both sides and against both sides. Of course, if they wrote the script the way I envision it, and it sold like I think it would, I have no doubt they would change their minds pretty quick about killing him off.
Maybe some entrepreneurial, adventurous soul at Marvel will arrive at the same conclusion and take that plunge and bring him back, and send him to the Iraqi War.
I guess the only thing left to decide is who they want to illustrate him punching out on the first new issue’s cover-unfortunately, the more liberal readers would probably like to see him punching out *Dick Cheney. In a way, I can understand why they decided to kill him off. It's just too bad.
1 comment:
See Petraeuss.
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