Posted on 12/05/2001 11:00:28 AM PST by Defiant
Everything We Need to Know We Learned From "The Godfather"
As soon as he had recovered from his wounds and the death of Sonny, Vito Corleone called a meeting of the heads of the five families.
"How did things ever go so far?" he asked. "I don't know. But we are reasonable men. Let us reason together.
"And let our children become pen pals."
Yeah, right.
As our "different kind of war" comes more and more to resemble -- as it invariably must in some ways -- the different kind of war that the United States has fought since World War II, many thinkers are pointing to the lessons taught by Carl von Clausewitz, Niccoló Machiavelli, and Sun Tzu. I submit that more appropriate answers to our current troubles may be found in the work of that great conflict strategist Mario Puzo.
The United States is not, of course, an organized crime family, but much philosophy survives the distinction. The strategic parallels are sound, right up to the son facing the results of his father's inaction. While Don Corleone did not go so far as to suggest that the children of the other dons write to each other -- that would have been, and is, ridiculous -- he did propose and agree to a peace that left the battle unwon.
(And even at that, he realized that the real villain was not the whoremonger Tattaglia but the smooth, sly Barzini.)
Already Vito Corleone had suffered an attempt on his life -- as has been the case with George H. W. Bush. There was been ineffective retribution -- Tattaglia's son was killed in the book; in real life, Bill Clinton ordered that some sand be excavated in Iraq when no one was around. The ineffective attempt at retribution in turn led to a huge loss -- in the book, the murder of Sonny; in the real world the things leading up to and including September 11.
The parallels continue, some of them amusing -- there can be no one alive who more resembles Luca Brasi in appearance and comportment than Postmaster General John E. Potter -- but most of them not. Like Clemenza, Israel is an actual friend; like Tessio, Pakistan is not. One imagines Pakistani boss Pervez Musharraf saying, as he's led away, "Colin, can you get me off the hook? For old time's sake?" (though it could turn out that the Pakistani president more resembles Cuba's Battista -- an uncomfortable partner driven out by his own internal problems.)
And we have certainly gone to the mattresses. We may not be discussing the way to make a good red sauce for a whole bunch of guys, but we're stocking up -- the trendy among us wearing our Cipro bottles like jewelry, the more sensible doing the kinds of things that smart people in Florida do during hurricane season. We're expecting a cruel and bitter war fought in some measure on our own turf. We expect to become accustomed to events that at any other time would be stunning. And we shall remain on this footing for so long as we merely exchange slaps with our enemies; until the son comes into his own.
It is with some pleasure that one can imagine the scene in which Colin Powell is told that with the moves we're planning, he's out: "I never thought you were a bad Secretary of State. Bill Clinton was a bad president, may his legacy rest in peace. But you're not a wartime Secretary of State."
And I imagine George W. Bush renouncing "the evil one" as elsewhere in the world Saddam's palaces collapse under heavy bombing, as Israeli tanks roll, as the Saudi royal family is turned away by immigration officials when they try to flee to the U.S., as the theocrats in Teheran are put swinging by an angry mob, yes, as Yasser Arafat looks up from the massage table and takes one in the eye. (The image of George W. himself returning from the men's room and personally sending Osama and Saddam to their eternal torments is delightful but just a little unrealistic, I suppose.)
It would be good for us to get out of the imported oil business, having decided to tap the domestic stuff, and here, too, Puzo guides us; the Corleone family got out of the olive oil business to undertake western pursuits.
But brightest of all is the notion of a crisp and clear January night where, before a national television audience, addressing a joint session of Congress, with all but one cabinet member present as well as the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, a beaming President Bush pauses just a moment and smiles in that way that we have come to learn is not a smirk, and then speaks:
"My fellow Americans, I am here to report that the Union is secure. Today I have solved all family business."
dep
Would you please, please tell me how, in the Cuban bar, Michael knew that his brother was the traitor?
I have no one else to ask.
Thanks
God bless The FreeRepublic
Unfortunately, almost no one has truly benefited from the attack - except the future benefits likely for the oil companies and the drug traffickers.
Don't read too much into an old saying. Sometimes people and nations blunder.
dep
Agreed. It's shame they can't just redo it from scratch before everybody dies. I & II are simply brilliant
dep
Springman: Thanks, you're on.
Defiant: I apologize for hijacking your thread for such trivialities.
Michael was, at his core, a good person who got caught up in evil. But did the best job that he was capable of in the role in which he found himself.
Something like a Greek tragedy, perhaps.
In the same manner, the Don stated as a fact that whoever came to Mike with a meeting after his death would be a traitor setting him up. I have often thought that this belief was a little extreme; it could very easily have been a legitimate meeting that was being set up by a loyal ally. But whoever made the approach was deserving of great scrutiny, that is for sure.
Interesting discussion.
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