The War on Terror: Lessons from the Movie The Manchurian Candidate
I never watched too many movies in my youth, so I have missed a lot of the classics people talk so much about. Out of curiosity I rented and watched The Manchurian Candidate the other night. You know the movie with Frank Sinatra, Angela Landsbury, and Janet Leigh where a group of US soldiers in the Korean War get captured and are brainwashed by communists and are sent back to the US to carry out deeds that almost result in the overthrow of the government. It was a great movie, but it really got me thinking. It had so many parallels to what is happening today in the great "Global War on Terror".
For those who have not seen the movie, it centers around the actions of a man who was brainwashed by evildoers to do whatever they wanted. The man was totally normal and carried on a normal life until he was shown a special visual clue. He would then go into a zombie-like state to receive instructions from his handlers and then would carry out the dastardly deed, remembering nothing of what had happened. As it turns out, at the instructions of his handlers, the man ends up killing everyone that ever gave him joy or that he ever cared about. He saw the destruction and deeply felt the grief caused from what he had done, but never knew or realized that he was, in fact, responsible for it. The most surprising part of the movie is when it is revealed that the man's key handler is his mother!
As she is giving him instructions for his last assassination (that of the president elect of the United States) for which she knows he son will be caught, yet which will put her and her puppet of a husband in the Presidency. She tells her son in anguished tones that "All I wanted was a perfect assassin! I had no idea they would chose you!!!!" Her tone then turns to rage and she says: "They did that to bind me close to them. They will PAY for this!!!! And pay for underestimating ME!!!!!" And then she sends her son off on his final mission of destruction of the innocents.
The Manchurian Candidate has a lot of lessons in it. Imams, warlords, and terrorist leaders who brainwash and exhort the young men who are the future of their countries to become destructive zombies in their war on terror are like the man's mother in the movie. It is obvious they have absolutely no respect or have no thought about the young men or the families of these youths that they use in their play for power, recognition, or respect. These evildoers also prevent their brainwashed predominantly male minions from even recognizing that what they are being told to do is destroying everything these young people love about their countries, their religion, and their families. It is a criminal act on the scale of catastrophic what these few determined, hateful, cowards, who pretend to be leaders, but who damn their people and followers to slow, painful, ignominious, and inglorious deaths, do. Like in the movie, these leaders should suffer the same consequences as the mother did. She was shot through the head by her son!! Unfortunately, the son finally realized what he had done to all the people and things that he loved and he put a bullet through his as well.
The Middle East and Afghanistan cannot afford to lose a generation of men who should be the builders of new peaceful and thriving societies. That is what the region is heading toward. And unless these young men realize the extent to which they are being manipulated and lied to and brainwashed, it will be a lost civilization harkening back to the Dark Ages. Only when they refuse to listen to the easy talk of those who are trying to coerce them to do destructive, dangerous actions that cause their own people further grief and destitution, and terminate these individuals with extreme prejudice will the Middle East and places like Afghanistan free themselves of the oppression (foreign and internal) that they have suffered under for so long.
For those who have not seen the movie, it centers around the actions of a man who was brainwashed by evildoers to do whatever they wanted. The man was totally normal and carried on a normal life until he was shown a special visual clue. He would then go into a zombie-like state to receive instructions from his handlers and then would carry out the dastardly deed, remembering nothing of what had happened. As it turns out, at the instructions of his handlers, the man ends up killing everyone that ever gave him joy or that he ever cared about. He saw the destruction and deeply felt the grief caused from what he had done, but never knew or realized that he was, in fact, responsible for it. The most surprising part of the movie is when it is revealed that the man's key handler is his mother!
As she is giving him instructions for his last assassination (that of the president elect of the United States) for which she knows he son will be caught, yet which will put her and her puppet of a husband in the Presidency. She tells her son in anguished tones that "All I wanted was a perfect assassin! I had no idea they would chose you!!!!" Her tone then turns to rage and she says: "They did that to bind me close to them. They will PAY for this!!!! And pay for underestimating ME!!!!!" And then she sends her son off on his final mission of destruction of the innocents.
The Manchurian Candidate has a lot of lessons in it. Imams, warlords, and terrorist leaders who brainwash and exhort the young men who are the future of their countries to become destructive zombies in their war on terror are like the man's mother in the movie. It is obvious they have absolutely no respect or have no thought about the young men or the families of these youths that they use in their play for power, recognition, or respect. These evildoers also prevent their brainwashed predominantly male minions from even recognizing that what they are being told to do is destroying everything these young people love about their countries, their religion, and their families. It is a criminal act on the scale of catastrophic what these few determined, hateful, cowards, who pretend to be leaders, but who damn their people and followers to slow, painful, ignominious, and inglorious deaths, do. Like in the movie, these leaders should suffer the same consequences as the mother did. She was shot through the head by her son!! Unfortunately, the son finally realized what he had done to all the people and things that he loved and he put a bullet through his as well.
The Middle East and Afghanistan cannot afford to lose a generation of men who should be the builders of new peaceful and thriving societies. That is what the region is heading toward. And unless these young men realize the extent to which they are being manipulated and lied to and brainwashed, it will be a lost civilization harkening back to the Dark Ages. Only when they refuse to listen to the easy talk of those who are trying to coerce them to do destructive, dangerous actions that cause their own people further grief and destitution, and terminate these individuals with extreme prejudice will the Middle East and places like Afghanistan free themselves of the oppression (foreign and internal) that they have suffered under for so long.
