Rush Hour 3 has a political message?

I watched Rush Hour 3 tonight. It was pretty decent as far as action films go. But here's a gem of a line in the film I plucked out:

"I will never know what it feels like to be an American; to kill for no reason."

I know. 90 minutes of adventure and I just had to nitpick about an inconsequential line.

Or was it?

The protagonists (Lee and Carter) in the film head to Paris (pronounced Pah-ree) and encounter a cab driver who proceeds to scold James Carter for being American. It seems he had a philosophical problem with American use of power in Iraq and dismissed them as a violent nation.

Tomato, potato.

Whatever. It was a dumb exchange and blatant in its "political" overtones. I'm not sure why the writers just had to insert the aforementioned line. It was sophomoric and pointless.

The twirp cabbie ended up being the hero and killing the bad guy for a "reason" American style. What to make of this? It's interesting that the French character killed with a purpose and not the American. Or is there an underlying point here that sometimes we have to kill to let freedom and peace prevail?

Heck, come to think of it, even the criminal Chinese antagonists in the film always kill for code and honour. Only the Americans are aimless.

Is it me? Or does anyone out there notice this too? Does it really matter?

Am I just bored?

Hasn't anyone heard of The A-Team? I mean, they did good work, right?

Note: A lady friend read this post and reminded me that they mentioned this twice in the film.