This is a powerful mixture of insight and humour from Jon Stewart, though the way he frames the parody does concern me.
Stewart rails against Obama’s ‘Team America’ pitch in selling another Middle Eastern war with a view to questioning whether it can possibly be successful. At the same time though he leaves unasked the more fundamental questions such as:
- Does the US have any right to play the role of world police?
- Is this really what is motivating the US to start another world war?
One of the classic strategies of those who market death is to encourage debate within a framework that already assumes the basic precepts that they are trying to sell. If the only question asked about Mr Obama’s latest war is whether it is winnable all hope for peace has already been lost.
Having said that, the question of whether the US can win such a war is still a valid one and deserves the sort of analysis Stewart subjects it to, and there is plenty of insight displayed here. The appearance of Emperor Palpatine (from Star Wars) is particularly apt, I think – highlighting the fact that the US neo-cons really are driving America to become the evil empire that Lucas so graphically depicted.
Father Dave