First of all, this is not a war movie, it's a thriller. We added it to the list because it's

misleadingly called the Siege, which is a tactic in war that is, by definition, without thrills.

It has lots of army dudes in it and it explores

the terrorists bringing the war to America, boogie man, that cynical xenophobes used

to frighten old people in Tennessee into buying spray bottles full of rice

vinegar to keep ISIS out of their roses.

But also, we're stymied to find films that really address this permanent and unending global war on terror we've all come to accept?

Are we really just committed to a limitless, borderless, golless state of protracted low-level

war with a decentralized and disorganized

demographic of self-replenishing zealots for all eternity? All because of that

admittedly, diabolical attack in 2001 that was in itself Osama's neo-Wahabi response

to our haram military presence in Saudi Arabia following Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.

Really if you're looking for excuses, it's back to the partition of Palestine,

the lack of foresight on the part of the House of Saud

when they chose religion to legitimize their dynasty, and MTV. But anyway, we can't talk about the

global war on terror exclusively through boots on the ground combat flakes

because a large part of the action is taking place on Al Jazeera, and in shipping

containers in the desert outside of Las Vegas, and in the surplus battle dress being shoveled

into the police departments of suburban St. Louis, and in Jim Baker's

plastic tubs of Apocalypse Macaroni.

So here we are at the Siege, a movie about the War on Terror, when it was just a glimmer in our eye. It's almost impossible to remember

what America felt like in 1998. I mean that's especially true for those of you like Ben Harrison

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