Do the Natural Thing

The violence seen in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing was instigated just as much by the decreasing power that Blacks had over Bed-Stuy as by racism itself. Brooklyn was changing; and Stuyvesant Avcnue was coming with it. Various forces were changing the area to the disapproval of its existing residents; yuppies, coppers, Koreans, Italians. This disturbed the residents of the area not because of racism, but because they were losing the stronghold that they had held on the neighborhood -- Bed-Stuy had become part of the Black identity (not unlike Harlem or Bronzeville). This is the only way that Spike Lee and myself will agree. I can't be too sympathetic to a disgruntled customer; but it would be indeed silly to disregard a group seeking preservation of their culture. Roger Ebert knows very well why we all "just can't get along."

The Battle of Algiers simply reiterates the idea of the faceless enemy. Many of America's wars have been against uniformed men in column. Those conflicts are easily won. A minority of our battles, however. have been against guerillas; Vietnam, Somalia, et. cetera. We lost for a reason, there was no clear enemy. France lost Indochina and Algeria on the same basis. Who was Amer...er...France to shoot at? As the review claimed; in conflicts such as these, both sides lose something. It becomes a question of how long the opposing sides are willing to forgo that something. For the most part, Islamic nations are on a much longer chronology. They will inevitably maintain their fervor where industrialized states will not. That is where the clearest comparison to Iraq is made; we may remain in that nation for one year, or five, or twenty. Iraqis will stay there for ages. The day we leave their civil war will reignite. Then, it is only a matter of how long we are willing to maintain presence (and committ men and money) to something we will inevitably lose. We can win every battle and lose the war. Gen. Mathieu summarized it rather simply; this is a matter for the police, not the army.