Terrorism, War, and Bush 43: Crash Course US History
Relation to The Dark Knight
The 9/11 attacks on America showed people a different kind of threat that hadn’t been obvious in recent history. There were people willing to die just to cause terror and discourse. This can be seen very clearly in The Dark Knight as The Joker is only interested in watching the world burn, with no motive for any kind of money or power, and he has no fear of dying to achieve his goals.
There could be a comparison drawn between Batman’s decision to be seen as the villain for the sake of the city and Bush’s willingness to go to war and develop his “war on terror”, even if it hurts public opinion of him.
Just like Batman is nothing without an enemy to fight, many people believe that some wanted a reason to go to war for the sake of being able to go to war.