{"id":6530,"date":"2006-02-04T09:12:25","date_gmt":"2006-02-04T14:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6530"},"modified":"2006-02-04T09:12:25","modified_gmt":"2006-02-04T14:12:25","slug":"what-part-of-syriana-dont-you-understand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/what-part-of-syriana-dont-you-understand\/","title":{"rendered":"What part of ‘Syriana’ don’t you understand?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s Note: Yes, Morbo sort of retired<\/a> a few weeks ago, but he suggested he might come back on occasion, when he has something to contribute. Thankfully, today is one of those days. Enjoy. -CB<\/i>]<\/p>\n

Guest Post by Morbo<\/a><\/p>\n

The Academy Award nominations were announced<\/a> just before the State of the Union, and believe it or not, I’ve managed to find a nexus between the two.<\/p>\n

George Clooney was nominated for best supporting actor for his role in “Syriana<\/a>.” Meanwhile, the other George told the nation<\/a>, “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.”<\/p>\n

Well, duh. Interestingly, that’s just what “Syriana” is about. The film is confusing at first because it consists of a series of short vignettes that seem unconnected. As they gradually dovetail, the film’s core message becomes clear: Our nation is indeed addicted to oil, and we’ll do bad things to keep the pipeline open.<\/p>\n

I don’t see many films on the big screen. I made time for this one. It’s a complex, talky geo-political thriller that I was still thinking about days later. I recommend it.<\/p>\n

Ironically, some liberals attacked the film as an example of liberal paranoia. Columnist Richard Cohen called the movie<\/a> “simplistic” and blasted its “cynicism.” Wrote Cohen:<\/p>\n

You will not be surprised to learn that the locus for all this ‘oil, terrorism, money and power’ is the United States, which is up to no good. With the exception of the Clooney character, everyone is corrupt, including, of course, the CIA.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m normally a fan of Cohen, but I found this statement incredibly na\u00efve on his part. I don’t want to give away too much about the movie for those who have not seen it, but I found the plot — especially the disturbing climax — to be perfectly plausible.
\n
\nThe movie’s central messages include:<\/p>\n

1. Petroleum companies have undue influence over U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n

2. The CIA meddles in the internal affairs of foreign nations to protect perceived American business interest and access to cheap oil.<\/p>\n

3. Lobbyists create phony front groups and manipulate people to get their well heeled clients what they want.<\/p>\n

4. Poverty and limited opportunities can lure some young men in the Middle East into extremist movements.<\/p>\n

5. Our government sometimes makes morally wrong choices purely for economic reasons.<\/p>\n

Which of these statements is controversial? Cohen can call me a cynic or say I’m paranoid for believing them. I prefer to think of myself as a realist. After all we’ve witnessed in Iraq, after the constant steam of lies from this administration, how could one come to any other conclusion?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s Note: Yes, Morbo sort of retired a few weeks ago, but he suggested he might come back on occasion, when he has something to contribute. Thankfully, today is one of those days. Enjoy. -CB] Guest Post by Morbo The Academy Award nominations were announced just before the State of the Union, and believe it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}