Author writes:

The insurgents are at first merely scared, angry kids, but they're hardened by the viciousness of the Soviets. Seeing nothing to lose, they become suicidal terrorists who assassinate, bomb civilian targets, gleefully murder wounded and captive Russians, and eventually martyr themselves in theatrical, insane ways.

Except that the suicide bombers in Iraq have mostly been Al Kaeda terrorists, brought in from Muslim countries around the world after heavy indoctrinization about the need to destroy the infidels everywhere and martyr themselves for the sake of a fantasy of a personal super-sexual afterlife and a world conquored for Allah.

Yeah, mabye except for that it's a good analogy.

Oh, and despite the fact that the Patrick Swayze character imposed a military command structure on the Wolverines (to make it into a military unit, right?), I don't see anything in the film about the ideology of national socialism (or "fascism" as you call it).

Factor out the suicide bombers and the analogy gets better. Much of the clusterf-ck that was 2003-2006 rested on our uncanny ability to alienate 80+ percent of the civilian population. As a result, you had able-bodied males (and females) who should have been working on pipeline and aqueduct restoration spending the bulk of their time setting up mortar tubes and installing IEDs under piles of uncollected trash.

Even the most hardcore Bush supporter has to recognize that it was the Sunni chiefs in the west who turned off the insurrection, not our military. Had we gone in with a better plan to weave those powerbrokers into the new governing plan, the neo-cons might have actually gotten the Iranian invasion they so-dearly wanted.

Anyway, that's besides the point. I agree with Plotz. Red Dawn stripped of its historical context is an underdogs-fighting-for-turf-fl­ick. It's also a reminder that running another person's country takes a lot of balls when you can barely run your own.