HELIOLITH

The parallels between Battlestar Galactica’s 3rd Season and the occupation of Iraq are clearly intentional, and undeniably thought provoking. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should probably skip my post.

Interestingly, it’s the human forces in the show that parallel the role of the occupied Iraqis, while the Cylon robot-enemy plays the occupiers. The second episode, which I just re-watched last night is completely full of parallels. The Cylon oligarchy force the puppet government (Baltar) to sign an execution order against suspected leaders of the insurgency, the human-staffed Cylon-controlled police force, wearing ski-masks for anonymity, rounds up ‘insurgents’ for interrogation, torture, and ultimately execution.

Far from being a situational drama of mediocrity, the new Battlestar Galactica is a science-fiction masterpiece, and the experience of it is much like reading an extended novel or trilogy. Suicide missions are used as a tool to wreak havoc on the enemy, this time by the good guys you are rooting for. There are those who question this practice (Chief Tyrol) claiming that ’some things you never do even in war’. Others (like the crazed Colonel Tigh) counter that soldiers are sent on suicide missions regularly, and strapping bombs to oneself is no different than many other missions with more acceptable appearances where the outcome (certain death of the soldier) is similarly guaranteed. The Cylon occupiers debate (briefly) the need to ’send a stronger message’ to stem the insurgency’s intolerable tactics. One of the most loathesome characters (the priest) argues that the ‘gloves need to come off’ and that non-cylon casualties are unimportant.

Watching as the police force round up suspects for execution, including one of the main female characters (Callie) who is forced to leave her approximately six-month old baby, is a torturous experience. She is screaming, outraged, kicking and fighting, forced into the back of a truck and the baby is left unattended.

Usually you can comfort yourself while watching or reading dramatized fiction like this with the thought that “this is only a story.” Unfortunately, I was unable to comfort myself, having recently read some of this excellent report from The Nation. The truth, in this case, is far more unsettling than fiction. It’s hard to push away the knowledge that midnight raids, kidnappings, and executions are a regular part of life for the people who live in the areas we hope to control.

I have little emotional connection the the real-world parallels, but I am attached to the characters in this show. If Americans only felt half as much outrage for the victims of war on both sides as they felt for their beloved TV characters, we might have a chance of changing the tide.