Oscars for Osama

In the post-9/11 world, some among us -- particularly in Hollywood -- have taken to treating evil with proper sensitivity.

Interviewed about Syriana, which stars and is executive produced by Best-Supporting-Actor nominee George Clooney, director and Best-Original-Screenplay nominee Stephen Gaghan says of Osama bin Laden and his fellow thugs: "I was just curious. Why are these people so angry?....It's not black and white. It's complex."

Searching equally for "complexity" is Best-Director nominee Steven Spielberg, who says of Best-Picture-nominated Munich, about the Israeli response to the murders of eleven of its athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics: "I just wanted to put empathy in every direction, because the situation is not cut and dried." Best-Adapted-Screenplay nominee Tony Kushner adds that "you can't approach this situation with a notion of simple right or wrong."

No simple right or wrong either for Hany Abu-Assad, director of the Best-Foreign-Language-Film nominee Paradise Now, which sympathetically portrays a suicide bomber who murders Jews. What motivates such people, he explains, is "the feeling of impotency, literally and figuratively. It's human nature."See also this must-read by Charles Krauthammer:

Oscars for Osama

Nothing tells you more about Hollywood than what it chooses to honor. Nominated for best foreign-language film is "Paradise Now," a sympathetic portrayal of two suicide bombers. Nominated for best picture is "Munich," a sympathetic portrayal of yesterday's fashion in barbarism: homicide terrorism.

But until you see "Syriana," nominated for best screenplay (and George Clooney, for best supporting actor) you have no idea how self-flagellation and self-loathing pass for complexity and moral seriousness in Hollywood....

In my naivete, I used to think that Hollywood had achieved its nadir with Oliver Stone's "JFK," a film that taught a generation of Americans that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA and the FBI in collaboration with Lyndon Johnson. But at least it was for domestic consumption, an internal affair of only marginal interest to other countries. "Syriana," however, is meant for export, carrying the most vicious and pernicious mendacities about America to a receptive world.