Dr. Strangelove

Caught the end of the film on the movie channel and it occurred to me, after having read Through our Enemies Eyes, that this satire might have had a negative effect on our current world-view. It mocks the militarism of the US Army, and does a damn good job of it. I wonder how signficantly this film, and the attitude towards militarism it espouses, has influenced the generation of Americans now in power - and by power, I mean the media, the government, scholars, and the professional class.

We look down at professional soldiers willing to go off on a suicide mission to attack the Russians in the film - but aren't those the exact type of soldiers we relied on to win WWII and the Civil War?

Dr. Strangelove mocks the flaws of the excessive militarism of the Cold War, yet we won the Cold War without a huge military confrontation with the Russians. They feared us because of the militarism of many in our armed services. But now, al Queda doesn't fear us, it attacks us without fear of retribution. We are trying to fight these humane wars and our enemies interpret it as weakness - unwilling to take casualties and unwilling to harm citizens.

I'm sure these filmmakers would like to take credit for preventing huge nuclear diasters by warning the government and military - will they also now take responsibility for weakening the resolve and survival genes of our country?