Hot Fuzz!

Hot Fuzz was quite the great movie: full of funny moments and lots of action. In the movie, a talented British cop in London is reassigned to a small town because he is so good that he makes the other police look bad. This small town has the lowest crime rate, but as it turns out, the town is run by a cult of old people who kill anyone who disturbs their peaceful town and try to make it look like an accident. The cop doesn’t know who the killer is, and keeps trying to figure it out with his partner. No one in the town is helpful to his investigation, and he eventually ends up in a shootout with all of the old people in town after he discovers their cult. The story is pretty ridiculous and funny, but offers some insight, I think, into Iraq.

The cop who investigates suspicious accidents in the village can be likened to the US. In Iraq, we have displaced Saddam and are working to establish order, but also have a mission to eradicate terrorism and stabilize Iraq. In the movie, the cop makes a few friends, but has to fight an uphill battle to find out anything in his investigation and root out the killers. This is like how the US has invaded a country with an entirely different culture, and seeks to root out terrorists. We’re like complete strangers to them, and many organizations are comprised of ordinary people, who secretly engage in terrorist activities (i.e. the guy who plants a roadside bomb and then goes back home to dinner with his family). The terrorists have huge support in the society, and don’t operate out of a hole in the ground, but out of their own homes.

In the movie, the cop eventually arrests or kills all of the cult members, and the town is safe for everyone again. In Iraq, we removed their source of peace: Saddam. It’s obvious that he was a cruel leader, but car bombs weren’t going off everyday under his rule. Now it’s up to us to restore peace again, hopefully sooner rather than later, with our economy hurting and Iran posing itself as a threat to peace worldwide.