Very well put, in your post. If I wasn’t prone to wild generalities for the sake of entertainment, my thoughts on the matter would have sounded very similar.

An image of Captain America kicking a racist depiction of a Japanese soldier in the neck notwithstanding, the character has always been a principled one. That is what I was referring to in my post: our principles.

My point was not that we don’t have enemies, or that we shouldn’t defend ourselves against very real threats, but rather that we, as a society, have taken a dramatically more aggressive position towards what “defense” means. There was a time when we looked at the viciousness of our enemies with horror, while now many believe we should strike back with equal, or greater, viciousness. That is the change: in the name of defense, any cruelty imaginable by us is OK. This is what we see on “24,” and in the Republican debates.

Please note, I said nothing about the Bush administration in my post, because I think this isn’t about them; it’s about us. We’re the ones that have changed. Our definitions of torture have softened. Our commitment to our liberties has eroded. We’ve become, in our hearts and in our minds, very different, and I can’t help but worry that this is exactly what those asshole terrorists wanted.

I do not subscribe to the notion that you must combat fanaticism with more fanaticism, but I fear that’s the direction we’re heading. I think the updated Captain America reflects that. I also fear that the glossy finish on him makes him kind of a metrosexual, which is distressing as well. So not only is the new Captain America more violent, he’s also kind of a pussy. Truly terrible.

The original Captain America is and was a fighting soldier during war. I don’t know what you imagine him being. The Nazis and the even more vicious Japanese Empire weren’t stopped by kind thoughts and platitudes; they had to be killed until they were willing to surrender.

Though I am not a great fan of the current administration, its misguided war in Iraq and most of its policies in general, I do believe our country still has foreign enemies actively seeking to do us harm. We should kill them too not out some presumed innate moral superiority or because of who we are but because of who they are and what they wish to do to democracy, liberty, freedom, and our culture and our country.