Deep
Threat
"War is a racket." - Major General Smedley D. Butler
 Among
my many clients is a purveyor of niche-market
videos. He offers a vast spectrum of
DVD's on golf, exercise, food and most
prominently,
not to mention profitably, videos of
war.
His latest military offering is a multi-DVD
retelling of the War of the Pacific during
World War II. It's couched iconically
as the "Eagle vs. the Sun".
Get it?
There's plenty of other WWII productions available in his
catalogue besides this one and they're all readily snapped
up by a seemingly war-insatiable
public. I would generally applaud this thirst for knowledge but
these videos are to history what The Texas Chainsaw Massace is
to instructional videos on the care and feeding of power
tools.
It's
often said that those who do not study history are doomed
to repeat their mistakes but this isn't always true. History
teachers in Japan and Germany, for instance, all sort of
pretend the
years 1939-1945 never happened. Apart from the occasional
market glitch both countries seem to have done all right
for themselves since then.
But Americans are taught the glory of war (except for unpleasant
anomalies like Korea and Viet Nam) and we just can't seem
to get enough of these
gory videos showing the same Japanese Zero spinning
out of the sky and onto the deck of a battleship. We accept
the ensuing grisly deaths because we know that vengeance
is coming.
It's like the world's least sexy snuff film.
Personally, I think anyone who doesn't watch them for either
the military strategy or the technology
ought
to
spend a few
minutes
studying
the real
history
of
the
causes
of WWII. Because it was all about oil, both in Europe and
in Southeast Asia. Learning why that war started is a lot
more important than how it ended.
America, hopefully, is on its way to energy independence
and perhaps future oils wars can be avoided. But it really
doesn't matter as we'll be eventually be fighting for food
or water or, hell, probably chocolate. Without doubt,
sometime
in the future, you
can bet some grizzled veteran will be slumped in his Astro-Lounger
viewing and reviewing
the gratuitous splendours of Hydro War IV in glorious 3D.
=mike=
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