Batman perfectly reiterates a famous Dick Cheney doctrine in a new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice TV spot.

“He has the power to wipe out the entire human race and if we believe there’s even a one percent chance that he is our enemy we have to take it as an absolute certainty,” Ben Affleck’s Batman tells Alfred in the new Batman v Superman TV spot. “And we have to destroy him.”

Is Ben Affleck’s Batman a Neocon Republican?

If Batman’s words made skin crawl it’s probably because they belong to what many view as a real-life supervillain:

Batman’s Superman doctrine is nearly identical to Dick Cheney’s One Percent Doctrine, which is described in Ron Suskind’s 2006 bestseller titled, appropriately enough, The One Percent Doctrine:

“If there's a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping al-Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It's not about our analysis... It's about our response,” former CIA Director George Tenet describes Dick Cheney as saying in Suskind's book.

While people have described Batman’s punch-first, surveil always behavior, particularly in The Dark Knight, as essentially fascist (a criticism often applied to superheroes generally, since their first resort is usually force), it seems Zack Snyder’s Batman in Batman v Superman is a straight-up neocon Republican.

Check out the Batman v Superman Republican ad campaign TV spot for yourself:

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice TV Spot 4

But the similarities between Batfleck and the torture-loving Republican neocon don’t just end with Batman appropriating Cheney’s excuse for endless war for himself. Earlier in the new Batman v Superman TV spot Alfred confronts Batman.

“You’re going to go to war?” Alfred asks.

“He’s the one who brought the war to us,” Batman replies. “Count the dead. Thousands of people. What’s next? Billions?”

Superman didn’t attack Metropolis, Zod did. But Batman certainly has a better case for Superman bearing part of the blame than Bush and Cheney did against Hussein and the people of Iraq.The 9/11 Attacks were repeatedly used as justification for ousting Saddam Hussein, despite none of the 9/11 hijackers being Iraqi.

While Batman has always used force, and Gotham could be critiqued as a one-man police state, Bruce Wayne’s portrayal in the comics makes an argument in favor of Bruce Wayne’s efforts. Not only do the overwhelming power of his enemies somewhat mitigate Batman’s drastic tactics (certainly not the case in US military might vs. ragtag terrorists), but Bruce Wayne is often shown as a civic liberal, eagerly boosting for massive socialized public works.

But Zack Snyder’s portrayal looks to turn Batman into full-on Cheney, foaming at the mouth as he reiterates the sickening talking points of an alleged American war criminal.