Tears Of The Sun: Implications On Iraq

March 20, 2003

Tears of the Sun: Implications on Iraq

Tears of the Sun, written by Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo, is a new action movie starring Bruce Willis and Monica Belluci. The movie takes place in the jungle of Nigeria where Bruce Willis, who is a military officer, is sent in to save Monica Belluci, an American doctor who is working at a missionary, from a growing threat of violence posed by a Nigerian rebel group. The problem arises when Belluci's character refuses to abandon her camp without the 70 refugees that she has been living with for the past two years. The character of Bruce Willis makes the decision to stay with the village people, risking his life in order to save others. This movie is much more than just a simple plot. Tears of the Sun sends a clear and concise message to the world, urging everyone who represents good in this world to fight against evil, or Iraq in this case.

I must first point out that this movie does not compare Iraq and the Nigerian government in any way. The relation between the two is in principle. There are two roads: protect the innocent from sure death or watch them die. The Nigerian Rebel troops serve as the example of Sadam Hussein in the movie. The leadership in Nigeria has no relation to the evil Iraqi leadership. It is purely the Nigerian rebels who pose the threat.

In this movie, Bruce Willis and his troops depart on a mission with one goal in mind: rescue the doctor played by Monica Belluci from the rebel troops. This is his only goal and his only responsibility. The deciding moment arrives when Bruce Willis arrives at the two, small, rescue helicopters with Belluci and 70 other refuges. He is ordered by his commanding officer to leave the seventy people to die and to leave with Belluci. Willis finally decides that he can't leave seventy innocent people in the wilderness only to be raped and tortured. He makes a decision that he didn't have to make. He decides to lay his life on the line in order to save seventy people, seventy strangers. Bruce Willis took on more than he had to because he had to do what was right. Although this situation deals with only about 70 lives, it mirrors a situation that America and the rest of the world must deal with now.

In our current struggle to disarm the country of Iraq, many Americans and foreigners believe that Iraq should be left alone. This idea baffles me. Nothing but evil exists in the leadership of Iraq. Sadam Hussein has killed thousands of Iraqi citizens, threatened neighboring countries, and has now built up a great deal of biological and chemical weapons without any intention of destroying them. This is evil, and evil cannot go unnoticed. Tears of the Sun addresses the issue of whether or not action is necessary, and suggests through Willis' actions that the world cannot let the evil leaders of Iraq wipe out innocent people. If we sit back and watch Iraq mutilate its own people, then we are no better than Iraq themselves. By not taking action, we are ignoring the fact that their actions are wrong. We would be letting the evil go unnoticed and unpunished. Some people would argue that we don't have the responsibility of protecting people across the world. This might have truth to it; however, just because something appears politically justified, it may still contradict everything that we know to be morally correct. This situation of politics vs. morality arises in the movie as Bruce Willis is ordered to leave the refugees to die. We can assume that his morals