What the hell, some G.I. Joe!

[seriousfic]

So the Joes are in South America to do something involving a coup. This being G.I. Joe, Cobra, Destro, a fruit company cartel, and other sinister forces are at work. But in the midst of all that, our boys pay a visit to the embassy.







Happy Memorial Day everyone, and remember to check for angry gun-wielding soldiers before you do any flag-burning.



Tags: creator: larry hama, publisher: marvel comics, title: g.i. joe

Comments

[davidklecha]

Actually, from the context of the story, the nation is simply in upheaval. One side has corporate American backing, but neither side is at war with America proper. In fact, the following issues of the story I believe feature an attempt to kill the Joes so the government doesn't find out what was going on there and come in against the corporate interests.

The mission Roadblock, Hawk, and Psyche-Out are performing is similar to one that US Marines train for all the time, and was featured (relatively accurately) in the movie Rules of Engagement in which Marines of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) fly in to rescue the US Ambassador and secure the embassy from rioters at the gate. No one was at war with the US, and the US had not invaded (beyond the rescue mission itself).

And per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, not only are these people indeed acting improperly--in uniform or out--but the notional government is also in the wrong for not better stopping them from overrunning the embassy in the first place.

[geoffsebesta]

I stand corrected then.

To me, this is really an opinion piece about flag burning, and the insurgents are straw-man stand-ins for emotional effect. I mean, the guy even spits on Roadblock, who ignores it entirely.

However, there are a lot of people here who think the fact that they are inside the embassy is overwhelming. It's certainly salient. So I can't really go beyond that -- they're inside the embassy, and clearly irregulars of low moral character.

So this isn't really about flag-burning at all, I guess.

[davidklecha]

Your self-effacement knows no bounds. ;)

They're not insurgents, to quibble a bit more with your language, merely looters. But yes, Hama did almost certainly want to make a point about flag burning, and yes, the looters were a stand-in (though straw man, again to quibble, implies that the character of a flag-burning protester is constructed artificially in order to make Roadblock's point, when in fact it's almost certain that such a character would be an indispensable part of any anti-US action, even if it is just simple looting). No, Roadblock is not right to threaten "pink mist" violence, but as I detailed above in my first comment on the post, it's understandable that he feels the way he does, and it's not necessarily from a surfeit of jingoism.