Iraq's Red Dawn

Free Iraq:

"Why do they fight us?

'Back in the 1980s, a film came out that was a masterpiece of Cold War propaganda. The film 'Red Dawn' depicted an invasion of the United States by a combined Soviet/Cuban force that came up through Central America and down from Alaska.
'Red Dawn' centered around the patriotic struggle of a bunch of kids from a small Colorado town, who armed themselves and took to the hills to fight the invaders. They were afraid and angry, and over the course of the movie most of them are killed. Each of the fallen is treated as a hero, their names etched upon a rock that eventually becomes a national monument once the war ends.
I was young enough that this movie had a pretty profound effect on me. In short, it scared the hell out of me and got me all jacked up at the idea of defending my country against an invasion by commie Huns.
... I am casting it now in a new context that throws the whole premise into a cocked hat. These Soviet/Cuban commie invaders kept the lights on, kept the stores open, and saw themselves bringing 'freedom' to a nation held in thrall by capitalist oppressors.
Why, then, did those kids fight? In other words, this film glorifies armed resistance by patriotic fighters bent on repelling invaders.
...Yet in Iraq today, the kids playing the role of the resistance are vilified as terrorists and thugs. Are they not doing what those all-American kids did, to great applause, in 'Red Dawn'?
....We're the 'liberators' this time around, trying to get the lights on, trying to hold some sort of election. Why do they fight us? They fight, I think, because home is home, and because invading armies are never, ever welcome (my italics).
All the neo-cons in the Bush administration who thought this was going to be a 'cakewalk' should have probably watched 'Red Dawn' before undertaking this farce."