watched Black Hawk Down last night and couldn't help thinking about the movie again and again today. Gore and drama aside, I think the movie really hit home with a couple of thought provoking scenes, among them being the numerous scenes where the Somalis were shot down like flies by the Americans (and yet they kept coming and coming - a faceless mob of angry people gone mad) and also the scenes where the US soldiers had quiet contemplative moments and being humans had struggled with why they were engaged in "someone else's war".

while taking care not to come across as an extreme pro-US person, I have to admit that the more I ponder on it, the more I am moved by what I realised was undoubtedly the driving force behind what eventually brings US to involve itself in all these wars around the world (surfed the net for "US Involvement In War" and came up with an amazing amount of information about US militia in World War I, II, Vietnam, Panama, Afghanistan (during the time of Russian invasion), Colombia, Nicaragua,Greece, Somalia, Kuwait, the Balkans, Philippines etc etc..). While it is easy to dismiss the US involvement as largely due to self-interest (e.g. for oil during the Gulf War - as your taxi driver uncle will tell you), this cause seems miserably inadequate to explain why the individual soldier on the ground will be willing to risk his life for a cause like this, especially in wars like the one in Somalia and in Vietnam - where the economic benefit to US is even more unclear. That's when I thought there must be a higher cause - something that they believe in so much that they are willing to give up their comfort and prove it with their lives - and it seems like these were (from watching the movie and also from reading some online stuff) the ideals of human rights, democracy, anti-terrorism etc.. some strong beliefs that these people seemed to have learnt from young... Frankly speaking, I think all this is so amazing for a country that is so rich and powerful and comfortable and could choose not to get involved nor to assume such a difficult international role....

This sort of thing must be foreign to so many of us in Singapore.....