Foreigners fell neatly into categories of worthy or unworthy: for America or against America. In Hollywood,history was reduced to screen "epics" such as Exodus, in which worthy (Jewish) refugeessettled in the Holy Land and unworthy Palestinians, made refugees in their own land, were invisible. Thesedispossessed people are now portrayed in American action movies, along with other Muslims, as terrorists.Following the Vietnam war, in which around five million Vietnamese were killed during the American invasion,and their land was destroyed and poisoned by American weapons of mass destruction, Hollywood came to therescue with a string of Rambo-and-angst films that invited the audience to pity the invader. These filmsprovided a cultural purgative that helped clear the way for America to mount other Vietnams - in El Salvador,Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Somalia and elsewhere. The current "war on terrorism" is underpinnedby the same Hollywood caricatures. Films like Black Hawk Down, which promotes a mendacious version ofAmerica's killing spree in Somalia, act as cultural "softeners" before the bombing starts again forreal.