No-Fly Zone
Unpacking Season 1, Episode 22 “What Kind of Day Has it Been?”
Question for you reader: what do you think the United States would do if Russia, North Korea, and Iran got together and proclaimed the entire country was a No-Fly Zone for American aircraft? And this was enforced by Russian, North Korean, and Iranian aircraft regularly flying patrols over our country? That probably wouldn’t go over too well with the US military and government, now would it?
But that’s exactly what the US, UK, and France did to Iraq after the Gulf War (France pulled out in 1996 and the patrols were made obsolete by the 2003 invasion). It was almost certainly illegal, as neither the No-Fly Zones or enforcing them with bombing (oh yes, Iraq claims the Coalition killed 1400 civilians) were authorized by the United Nations.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop Jed and Leo from sending in the military after an F-117 is shot down (by the Iraqi Republican Guard while flying in Iraqi airspace). Jed threatens to invade Baghdad if the surviving pilot is captured or killed, Leo cruelly shutting down any attempt at a diplomatic approach. Not once is this presented as hypocritical of the US or perhaps justified on the part of the Iraqis to be upset over a foreign nation patrolling their airspace.
Because, if it’s not obvious to you already, that’s what the United States really is at its core: a massive hypocrite. We preach freedom and democracy but we stole this land from an indigenous population we committed a genocide against. We built this country off the back of slave labor for at least 250 years (one could argue slavery never went away, we just made our prison population the new slaves). We were a former colony that went on to have several colonies of our own, many of which we still have today (hello Puerto Rico!).
So, no, I don’t find it heroic when Jed claims he’ll invade Baghdad if Iraq captures a soldier who was illegally patrolling their airspace.
I find it to be evil.
Other Thoughts
Jed’s “are we failing you or you failing us” comment to the young woman gave me Newsroom flashbacks.
Toby makes another anti-communist comment about China. Not loving this trend.
Also his brother getting stuck on a malfunctioning Columbia space shuttle was so hard to watch considering what was about to happen three years later…
“All we’ve got is two corporate parties, one pro-life, one pro-choice.” People were saying this shit in 2000 and if anything it’s just gotten worse.
Goodbye Mandy, we hardly knew ye (spoiler alert: she didn’t get shot, you are simply never going to see her again). That concludes season 1 of The West Wing - see you all in season 2 (on HBO Max this time!).