Munich...

Melissa and I rented Munich tonight...

It's a remarkable movie...for anyone wanting to understand terrorism and counterterrorism efforts, our efforts and their consequences...this is an excellent tutorial...

You also might check out one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, One Day in September, which documents the same events with real life commentators and more historical analysis than dramatic representation as with Munich...

But Munich is remarkable, in its attention to historical detail, it's terribly powerful script and performances, choices around softer characterizations and soft lighting and modest costuming that I think, like Capote, very much focus audience members on a very powerful story of Israeli assassination policy after the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics...

I must say that before this film, I felt much more agnostic about the Israeli policy of assassination largely because of the complications of bringing people to justice in a militaristic environment with those responsible for terrorism being protected, often, in lands and by people sympathetic to terrorism...

This movie made me very much rethink that agnositicism...

Spielberg's goal is to promote discussion and he introduces the film on the DVD with an express purpose of wanting audience members to engage in dialogue about the Munich killings, the assassination of the terrorists, and Israeli, American, and other policies about counterterrorism, generally...

But the story is clearly one of not only assassinations where operatives are very unclear about the guilt or innocence of those they are assassinating...but where their efforts are clearly counterproductive by any fair observation of the responses and consequences of their assassinations...many more Israelis are killed in response to the assassinations than Palestinians assassinated by Israeli operatives...and the security situation is clearly made far less safe by the policy, in terms of civilians killed, in particular, than a reconsidered strategy...

A recommitment to the peace process is the only realistic way out of bloodshed in Israel and Palestine, today, even with a Hamas leadership that there is much reason to mistrust, including and especially their rationalizations of recent suicide bombings in Israel...unilateral withdrawal has clearly not achieved its objective...and military options have been terribly counterproductive up until this point...

Palestinians must hold their leadership accountable for its failed leadership, domestically -- as Palestine grapples with critical capital and resource shortages prompted by the failure of Hamas' leadership -- and for its failed leadership in promoting a violent and hostile relationship with Israel rather than the stumbling but real path to peace that Mahmoud Abbas continues to lead along with Israel, the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia and those committed to the road map for peace...

And Israelis must do the same, expecting a genuine commitment to a peace process from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or voting for a leadership that will bring to the peace table a genuine commitment to peace...

Revenge -- the title of George Jonas' historical novel about the assassinations of Palestinians following the Munich murders from which the screenplay of Munich is drawn -- sums up much of the problem with the assassination policy...the desire and rationalizations for revenge...and its all-too-tragic and counterproductive consequences...

Though work by people like Joe Nye around soft and hard power, Amartya Sen around universalizing democratic values, Benjamin Barber around decentralized participatory democratic engagement, and Francis Fukuyama around multi-multilateralism all have important roles to play in this on-going tragedy, Munich will play a unique role in providing a broad-based opportunity for dialogue, discussion, and reflection on terrorism, counterterrorism, and the pursuit of ideas and polices that will deal most effectively with each...

I do sincerely hope that my ideas around least possible necessary aggression will also contribute to those ends...or that if my ideas are wrong that my thoughts and ideas might help contribute to the all-too-important end of developing effective policies to end terrorism, bring terrorists to justice, when possible, and kill only in self-defense over the course of that effort, and any and all proactive peace efforts that might effectively end terrorist campaigns...

Peace is an option in Palestine as it was in Northern Ireland and other pockets of terrorism where self-determination and therefore sovereignty and democratic representation are at stake, I believe, but not possible with Al Queda where such issues are not at stake, though Al Queda members must be brought to justice, I believe, when possible, and killed only in self-defense in the course of that effort...

We need far better collaboration between military, intelligence, and law enforcement efforts to make that possible...we make moves in that direction, though the persistently failed effort to create stronger authority within and among those organizations rather than better collaboration and coordination between them along with flatter, less hierarchical organization -- very smart advice that policy researcher Paul Light has been offering for quite a while -- will need to be faced honestly if we are to make our efforts effective...

Each terrorist campaign must be addressed independently insofar as they act independently, I believe...maximum force against all terrorist activities is a good faith and still unrealistic, foolish, and failed effort that must be rethought for our efforts to be effective, I believe...

And Munich provides a look at why and how policies of blunt force without a commitment to peace, democratic justice, and thoughtful reflection on each are both rationalizations for revenge and why such rationalizations and policies based on revenge fail as a matter of realpolitik as much as a failure of our strongest values and thought...

Munich was the best picture of 2005 that I've seen, thusfar...Capote was my pick up until tonight...but Munich transcends the remarkable humanity, beautifully subtle acting and and equally subtle movie-making (with nods to lighting and costuming, in particular) in Capote to touch on an on-going and important issue of policy and the human heart with remarkable clarity and an invitation to open-ended discussion...

Crash was sensationalistic, sentimental, myopic, liberal propaganda around the issue of race that never should have been nominated for Best Picture nevertheless won, as far as I'm concerned...that fifth slot should have gone to Walk the Line, I think, though there are many other really terrific movies from 2005 that could have been nominated well before Crash, I'm sure...

But Munich offers us something that films would do us well to do more of...which is provide us with an opportunity to discuss and debate and reflect on important policies like counterterrorism and international policy, generally, with a realistic portrayal of the consequences of policies past...

I highly recommend Munich to anyone who cares about terrorism and its impact on humanity...our individual humanity as much as on the lives that it ravages and impacts...

And for those responsible for the development and carrying out of counterterrorism policy in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere...I highly recommend that we begin to take seriously the very thoughtful recommendations of the most esteemed international policy experts -- people like Joe Nye and Benjamin Barber and Francis Fukuyama and Amartya Sen -- and the rest of the most thoughtful among the scholarly and practicing international policy, practicing and retired military leadership and military historians, intelligence and law enforcement officials and scholars, and the general scholarly and practicing policy community...to take seriously the idea that careful thought is far more necessary to develop more effective counterterrorism policies than simply more force...

That thought matters...and that the deepest thought matters most...even when we might doubt that reality...out of hubris and unthinking...

I guess I better get to bed...I'd see the movie when you get a chance...to clarify the human issues involved with our responses to terrorism and difficult policy issues, most of all...

Have a good night, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben