Ramon: What this is about is a big country,
the United States…
…making war on a little country.
Ted: In the US government’s view,
which I’m not in any way endorsing…
…the US policy is… (notices some ants on the ground nearby)
Maybe this will help. Take these ants.
In the US view, a small group,
or cadre, of fierce red ants…
…have taken power and are oppressing
the black ant majority.
The stated US policy
is to aid those black ants…
…opposing the red ants,
in hopes of restoring democracy…
…and to stop the red ants from assisting
comrades in neighboring ant colonies.
Ramon: That is the clearest and most disgusting
description of US policy I’ve ever heard.
The Third World is just a lot of ants to you.
Ramon’s Friend: Those are people dying, not ants!
Ted: You don’t understand.
I was reducing everything to ant scale– the US included. An ant White House…
…an ant CIA, an ant Congress,
an ant Pentagon.
Ramon: Secret ant landing strips…
…illegally established on foreign soil.
Fred: – Where are the red ants?
(Later, at the car…)
Ted: – That was terrible.
Fred: – You’re blowing it way out of proportion.
Those red ants were bad news.
They weren’t good for anybody.
Ted: I was trying to convince them
to look at Americans in a new way.
Then, in one stupid move,
you confirm their worst assumptions.
Fred: I didn’t confirm them,
I am their worst assumption.
