There are a number of messages one might take away from the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes movie, which dominated the box office over the weekend.
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Watching it, a particular quote from Dwight Eisenhower came to mind. Said General Eisenhower in 1946, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a movie about all three. Especially the stupid part.
That’s where Rick Perry comes in.
Taking place a decade after 2011’s also successful Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we find main character Caesar living in relative peace in the wilderness with his fellow highly evolved, talking apes, mostly removed from human contact. Humans themselves have almost been wiped out due to a highly contagious simian flu, but a remnant survives.
Seeking to repair an old dam that might provide a much needed energy source, a small contingent of human engineers trek into the wilderness where a violent altercation takes place with one of the apes. Some apes want to punish the humans by going to war. Caesar chooses to avoid conflict but assures his flock he will at least show the apes’ strength.
Caesar confronts the human population to warn they must stay on their side of the tracks, or else. The army of apes behind him compound the threat. Still, Caesar’s entire purpose and mission is to avoid war. “How many apes will die?,” he asks, when confronted by critics among his tribe.
Still, some apes demand war, seemingly unconcerned about the costs.
I saw Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Friday. On Friday, I also read Texas Governor Rick Perry’s op-ed in the Washington Post in which he criticizes Senator Rand Paul for supposedly being an “isolationist” toward the chaos in Iraq.
The rationalizations that help get the U.S. entangled in the Iraq war in the first place were rehashed in Perry’s chest-thumping op-ed. As Paul pointed out in his response on Monday, there are few substantive differences between Perry’s approach and Paul’s in Iraq.
Except for one—the fact that Perry has said he’d be willing to send American troops back into Iraq.
Asked Paul on Monday, “How many Americans should send their sons or daughters to die for a foreign country — a nation the Iraqis won’t defend for themselves? How many Texan mothers and fathers will Governor Perry ask to send their children to fight in Iraq?”
“How many apes will die?” asked a fictional character in a blockbuster new movie.
Most Americans overwhelmingly oppose sending U.S. troops back into Iraq for what should be fairly obvious reasons.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a great movie about the irrational nature of war and why wise leaders should go to great lengths to avoid it.
For me, it was also a movie about why anyone who wants a more rational foreign policy should probably avoid Rick Perry.
Disclosure: I co-authored Senator Rand Paul’s 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington.