Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Dirty Wars (2013)

Director: Rick Rowley. Cast: Jeremy Scahill. 87 min. USA/Afghanistan/Iraq/Kenya/Somalia/Yemen. Documentary.

Investigative journalist pieces together several supposedly unrelated drone/missile attacks in the Middle East and Africa, and realizes they're all carried out by "JSOC" (Joint Special Operations Command), signifying the current administration's drastic policy change on how the US conducts wars: instead of sending troops on the ground, they merely perform limited covert operations without declaring war on the country. Like any documentary, not showing the other side of the argument somewhat affects the film's credibility; but the brilliant film-making makes it extremely hard to ignore the proposed facts. When it comes to war, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Obama is no saint.

Mo says:

2 comments:

  1. I was surprised and shocked by this documentary. Whilst the main stream media in the UK and no doubt the US too portrays our side as heroic and we are of course the "good guys". Our governments tell us these wars are being fought to ensure our safety and most people just buy that line. All I see is future generations of extremists being created by our violence against innocent people. We have no business in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq has proven to be a disaster for just about everyone.

    Obama certainly does not come out smelling of roses, I know all presidents/prime ministers have blood on their hands but these covert missions that take place wherever they feel like are just morally corrupt.

    A great documentary, journalists llike this are worth their weight in gold.

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    1. What's most appalling about the film, is that not only does the US kill its own citizens without any legal proceedings (but again, probably every country does), but also now that it's out in the open, nobody does anything about it. Or maybe nobody 'can' do anything about.

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