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The Geopolitics of WTF
Deciphering the fallout of the Zelensky-Trump meeting fiasco and the future of American foreign policy
Some six months after I returned home from Afghanistan, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone unleashed their cult classic comedy, Team America: World Police. I caught the 2004 commercials at my local gym and thought, “I have to see this.” The premise of the movie follows a squad of gung-ho super soldiers who battle terrorists and the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il. Oh, and all the actors are puppets.
Fresh from a war the movie mocked, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I roared with laughter in the theater. Team America skewers American jingoism, Hollywood, and global foreign policy, with critics and fans alike widely embracing it.
By the time I arrived in Iraq in 2006, the movie had become a hit with the troops. To identify roads, American soldiers would rename them to ensure proper route clearance and uniformity when sending mission status over radio communication. We typically named streets after famous actresses or porn stars, but one street was an exception. Troops had named it “Bakalakadaka,” a nod to Team America’s parody of Arabic speech and a line ripped straight from the film. I could never keep a straight face anytime I heard, “We’ve got two military-aged males…
