From Travis Bickle to Jacob Nicks - Still No End in Sight

Isolation, alienation, paranoia, insomnia, loneliness, PTSD, delusions, inability to form relationships, dead-end graveyard shift work in New York, prostitution, outsider philosophising, judgemental retribution, and vengeful violence - there're a lot of thematic similarities here with Martin Scorsese's masterpiece 'Taxi Driver' (1976).

While I was moved to empathy by his plight, Jacob Nicks (Russ Russo) is no Travis Bickle (Robert de Niro). Still, we can but hope that 'An Act of War's central theme - that military service can REALLY Mess You Up like nothing else - may help to prevent more young lives from being beaten into oblivion on the anvil of US imperial ambition. Kudos to writer/director Ryan M. Kennedy and his team for their five-year-long tenacity in making an indie movie anti-war antidote to the ultraviolence of Hollywood's militaristic "action" blockbusters.

It's really no surprise that the Shell-Shocked Veteran* archetype keeps on recurring in American movies, because Washington's war-making empire never lets up on recruiting its citizens to become paid killers of Johnny Foreigner, and in engineering theatres of war in which to grind up and ruin civilian and military lives. For instance, from Travis Bickle in 'Taxi Driver' (1976) to Jacob Nicks in 'An Act of War' (2015), the list of indictments reads as follows.

"[...] 1976 – No major war

1977 – No major war

1978 – No major war

1979 – Cold War (CIA proxy war in Afghanistan)

1980 – Cold War (CIA proxy war in Afghanistan)

1981 – Cold War (CIA proxy war in Afghanistan and Nicaragua), First Gulf of Sidra Incident

1982 – Cold War (CIA proxy war in Afghanistan and Nicaragua), Conflict in Lebanon

1983 – Cold War (Invasion of Grenada, CIA proxy war in Afghanistan and Nicaragua), Conflict in Lebanon

1984 – Cold War (CIA proxy war in Afghanistan and Nicaragua), Conflict in Persian Gulf

1985 – Cold War (CIA proxy war in Afghanistan and Nicaragua)

1986 – Cold War (CIA proxy war in Afghanistan and Nicaragua)

1987 – Conflict in Persian Gulf

1988 – Conflict in Persian Gulf, U.S. occupation of Panama

1989 – Second Gulf of Sidra Incident, U.S. occupation of Panama, Conflict in Philippines

1990 – First Gulf War, U.S. occupation of Panama

1991 – First Gulf War

1992 – Conflict in Iraq

1993 – Conflict in Iraq

1994 – Conflict in Iraq, U.S. invades Haiti

1995 – Conflict in Iraq, U.S. invades Haiti, NATO bombing of Bosnia and Herzegovina

1996 – Conflict in Iraq

1997 – No major war

1998 – Bombing of Iraq, Missile strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan

1999 – Kosovo War

2000 – No major war

2001 – War on Terror in Afghanistan

2002 – War on Terror in Afghanistan and Yemen

2003 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, and Iraq

2004 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen

2005 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen

2006 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen

2007 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen

2008 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen

2009 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen

2010 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen

2011 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen; Conflict in Libya (Libyan Civil War)

2012 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen

2013 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen

2014 – War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen; Civil War in Ukraine

2015 – War on Terror in Somalia, Somalia, Syria and Yemen; Civil War in Ukraine

For 222 out of 239 years – or 93% of the time – America has been at war. (We can quibble with the exact numbers, but the high percentage of time that America has been at war is clear and unmistakable.)

Indeed, most of the military operations launched since World War II have been launched by the U.S.

And American military spending dwarfs the rest of the world put together.

No wonder polls show that the world believes America is the number 1 threat to peace."

~ WashingtonsBlog, from 'America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776. The U.S. Has Only Been At Peace For 21 Years Total Since Its Birth'
» http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41086.htm

As long as the US ruling class continues to succeed in convincing each new generation of young people to kill foreigners for money (and "freedom", "glory", "the good of the Homeland" - in reality the sordid vested interests of Yanqui imperialism), then the shattered lives of war veterans will continue to haunt the streets and movie theatres of America.

Give peaceful coexistence a chance - quit colluding with the military industrial complex by offering up sons and daughters to be paid killers - and maybe someday the Great American Shell-Shocked Veteran* film genre will come to an end.


* for further instances, see, eg:
» http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShellShockedVeteran