But suspending disbelief about that key fact, an America run by an idealistic woman "restoring American values" – one guesses that Fox ("24") figured Hillary Clinton would win the election – perhaps a commitment to Zimbabwe or Senegal is plausible. Perhaps, if that nation, Sengala, suddenly seemed drawn into the spiral of genocide, as real Rwanda did in 1994 . . . no. Our soldiers would leave again.
In magic America, opposing the fielding of child-soldiers actually exercises the president to risk American lives.
Sengala is like an oil-less Iraq: but filled with victims.
Jack Bauer is guarding the noble Good African (see Sanders of the River, 1939), and his Queen Nefertiti wife.
It is as if we had a good version of Bush, strangely involved in "saving" the citizens of a country far worse than Saddam's Iraq, because they're Afff-Reeeek-Kan! You know things are bad THERE!
But why doesn't the Star Trek captain Madam President bomb Sengala down to the raw turf? Because the state is at fault, not the people. And the state in this case is conveniently not even IN Sengala, removing the temptation to equate them. Sengala is therefore purely its people. The Sengala state is . . . right here in Washington, DC! The better to oppress their own kind. To bomb people in order to oppose a state (Israel -- Gaza -- Iraq . . .)? On "24" that is not what America does.
Mr. Jumbulaya the arch villain is most likely not only in Washington, but within running or easy driving distance of the Capitol. This mid-1960s character, who needs Roger Moore, you remember, with that the huge b/w check tie, consoles and computers at hand, pinky diamond, and attitude, he's gonna burn middle Americans in Ohio. With his magic laser beam.
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