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"contrast it to mainstream American culture's take on real kids like him."
Could you explain that a little more? I am not aware that there is a mainstream take. I personally pity kids like this, and I think a lot of people in America in particular have sympathy for anyone who is subject to manipulation under religious pretenses.
P.S. Love your books.
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Thanks. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
I suppose it's not fair to say that there is a "mainstream American take" on kids like this. I think many Americans would, in theory, sympathize with the kids and blame their mentors. But I think a lot of that sympathy disappears once they actually commit a bombing.
And I suppose that's fair.
I guess my beef is with how a lot of propaganda mongers like to label things "terrorist" and demonize them when really there are tons of shades of gray to this whole affair. It really annoyed me when they started to go after online poker saying that it's a
potential source of terrorist funding. And it annoys me when the official American policy WRT kids like the Pakistani kid in the movie is to lock 'em up and refuse to give them a trial and/or kill them whenever possible.
I think a real "war on terror" should involve real aid for the Muslim poor, not continued exploitation of them, a la Connex/CIA/Emirs/etc. That was the message that came through most clearly from the movie for me... and it's one I agree with 100%. US support for corrupt royals and amoral, poorly regulated oil companies is creating the terrorists. To spend hundreds of billions killing 30k people in Iraq for a "war on terror" while simultaneously supporting the conditions that breed the dispair among young Muslims is beyond incompetent.