Cold War Redux

Building the Berlin Wall

Older son went to see Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks last night. He tells me the movie was okay, except for the heavy handed propaganda aspect. The movie is set back in the '60's, back when the the cold war was at it's coldest, and you would expect the American's in the movie to have a dim view of the Soviets, especially those who were in the government or the military, which is essentially everyone in the movie. If you weren't in the military or the government, you had no role to play here. The problem comes with the way the Soviets are portrayed in this movie, which was made last year. It was like nothing had changed, we are still fighting the cold war and the Soviets are still our bitter enemy. No behind the scenes of what was going on with the Soviets, not even any subtitles under the Russian dialog.

       KSA (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) beheaded a dissident cleric this month and some Iranians responded by burning the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. With this kind of hostility and since the USA (the United States of America) is backing KSA and Putin (Vladimir Putin, President of Russia) is backing Iran, we have a proxy war fomenting in the Middle East.

    So with Russia and the USA pushing and shoving, I suppose it's not surprising that the movie echoed that sentiment. Since KSA signed a peace treaty with Israel they are now friends, and since Jewish people have an outsized influence in Hollywood, I shouldn't be surprised that the movie portrays the supporter (Russia) of the enemy (Iran) of their 'friend' (KSA) in a negative light. But I still think it's a little stinky.

    I have to admit the burning of the Saudi Embassy made me very happy. I don't think there is anyone I like less than the rulers of Saudi Arabia.
   
    KSA produces more oil than anyone else. They are also sitting on the world's second largest (known) oil reserves. Have you noticed how the price of oil has plummeted recently? I wonder what kind of game KSA is playing, or if they are even aware of what their policies are, or what effect they are having. I suspect their main goal is to have someone to bitch about. Since they can't bitch about Israel anymore, they are picking on someone in their own league. They already have instigated chaos in Iraq and Syria, so who better to pick a fight with than Iran?