Crossposted from The Next Agenda http://www.thenextagenda.ca/... . I didn't know if I'd post it here but then I saw this story in the Wapo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/... Iran Urges Arabs to Eject U.S. Military
I’m sure many of you have seen the Disney-Pixar movie, A Bug's Life . If you haven’t, please read this overview http://en.wikipedia.org/... as I’m going to examine this children’s movie as it relates to current affairs, namely, the Iraq war.
Although it was in development for a few years, the movie was released in 1998...the same year of the now infamous PNAC letter to Clinton http://www.newamericancentury.org/... . Meant to be a twist to the Aesop’s fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper, the moral of this story is that one can overcome adversity if one truly believes in oneself. But the movie actually provided a prescient warning...too bad the neoconservatives didn’t pay attention.
First, a few facile comparisons:
The grasshoppers "invade" an ant colony to demand an annual tribute of a food offering; the U.S. invaded Iraq demanding a handover of WMD but also with the intent of gaining access to oil.
At the first grasshopper/ant encounter in the movie, the ant mantra is "they come, they eat, they leave"...kind of like the first Gulf War followed by sanctions.
The ant hero Flik brings in "Warrior Bugs", intended to fight the grasshoppers. Even though they're really just washed-up circus performers, they eventually help fight in the final "insurgency". (Al Cicada? Al Katydid?)
Two of the grasshopper characters we first meet have a superficial resemblance to a couple of notorious American leaders:
Meet Thumper, the Enforcer
Shock and Awe?
And then there's Hopper, "hey, I'm a compassionate insect..."
Compassionate Conservative?
Now, to be fair to Hopper, I don’t see him as Bush. For one thing, he really is a leader, controlling his grasshopper troop with iron antennae; he actually conceives the plans and personally leads his followers into battle. Although Disney hides naughty bits, Hopper has those metaphorical cojones, not an empty codpiece.
Hopper may actually be seen as the embodiment of PNAC ideology. http://www.newamericancentury.org/...
Look at this scene which takes place in between the two grasshopper invasions:
At their new "digs", a few of the grasshoppers voice misgivings (about going back to Ant Island) to Molt, Hopper’s bumbling brother. The (cough) Vice-President Molt approaches Hopper to broach the subject, saying there’s plenty of food where they are. Hopper is furious, but devious.
He flies into the party area and announces "Guys, order another round because we’re staying here!"
(Applause)
Hopper:"Sure, what was I thinking...going back to Ant Island...I mean, we just got here, and we have more than enough food to get us through the winter, right? Why go back?"
(Goes behind the bar)
Hopper: "...But, there was that ant that stood up to me..."
First dissenting ant(DA): "yeah, but we can forget about him!"
Second DA: "yeah, it was just one ant!"
(General laughter)
Hopper: "Right, it’s just one ant!"
Second DA: "yeah, boss, they’re puny."
Hopper: "Hmm, puny...say, let’s pretend this grain is a puny little ant."
(Reaches to up to grain dispenser, a human-sized bottle tipped on incline with release cap, pulls out one grain and tosses it at second DA)
Hopper: "Did that hurt?"
Second DA : "nope!"
(Hopper hurls grain at first DA)
Hopper: "Well, how about this one?’
First DA: "Are you kidding?" (More laughter)
Hopper: "Well, how about this?"
(Rips off bottle cap...entire grain storage pours out, burying dissenters in a huge pile...laughter stops)
Hopper then climbs atop the grain pile and espouses his views on the necessity of returning:
"You let one ant stand up to us then they all might stand up. Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one, and if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life. It’s not about food. It’s about keeping our way of life. That’s why we’re going back. Does anyone else want to stay?"
(Remaining chastened grasshoppers fire up their wings and prepare to follow their leader.)
Hmm, projecting brute force and strength to preserve power and prestige...why is that so familiar?
(As an aside, Hopper is smart enough to foresee the problem but goes ahead anyway. Wonder if any of those now-whiny PNACers could have figured this out?)
In the final confrontation, Flik (the ant hero) stands up once again to Hopper, and gets pretty badly beaten up for his troubles. But he reveals to the ant colony that, even though the ants were collecting every scrap of food on the island for the grasshoppers, Hopper still intended to squish the queen as a lesson to thinking ants everywhere. Hopper gets ready to squish Flik, but Princess Atta (heiress apparent) flies in between them to defend Flik. Molt alerts Hopper to the hordes of ants now ready to defend their queen and princess. Hopper commands them to stay back, while Molt mutters "oh, this was such a bad idea", backing away with most of the other grasshoppers.
Princess Atta hovers in Hopper’s face and tells him " The ants pick the food, the ants keep the food, and the grasshoppers leave." Cue onrush of entire colony,
grasshoppers cut and fly, except for Hopper, who screams at the now-retreating grasshoppers "Don't leave me you cowards, they're just ants" while he gets trampled and swarmed by the newly courageous ants.
Hopper is nearly saved by a sudden downpour of rain, and, ever the megalomaniac, snatches Flik in order to extract revenge. In some of his final words to Flik, he vows to return the following year with more grasshoppers (umm, more troops?), before he meets a fitting demise.
(I'd like to read this as a public rejection of PNAC, and in no way intend to portray it as a literal death of anyone.)
Of course, this is a Disney movie...happy ending, fireworks, only one casualty of a disastrous invasion. Ant Island is isolated, with a homogenous population all dedicated to supporting the queen and the colony. There is no Saddam equivalent.
If there is a "Saigon Helicopter moment" in the near future for American troops, I highly doubt they’ll just be able to cut and fly. And we all know the Iraqis are not united but busy killing each other in a seemingly endless cycle of revenge. Ethnic differences among Iraq’s neighbours across the Middle East could cause even more regional wars. We’ve got one heck of a Mess’o’Potamia, and there will be no Disneyfied ending.
Life will not imitate art...we will be looking at a circle of death and destruction, brought on by sheer stupidity.
Note: I’ve been thinking of writing this for over a year, but I didn’t care to be seen as making pessimistic predictions, nor did I want anyone to think that I was denigrating soldiers or civilians by comparing them to insects...but it’s more about the characters and motivations than the species.
I only wish that Bush had watched this movie...far more critical kiddie's fare than The Pet Goat...