"Control Room"

[wmw999 2,449]

I just watched this video -- it's a viewpoint of the press coverage in Iraq, focusing on Al Jazeera. It's not necessarily sympathetic, nor is it damning -- and that's to both sides. It's clear from the movie that Al Jazeera has an audience that it's showing to -- but who doesn't?

Hands down one of the nicest folks in the movie is one of the main guys in the press control room for the US Army in Doha; you really can't say that it's damning to the US military as a whole or as a part. It does poke some fun at American ignorance of Iraqi geography, but, well, there was some funny stuff. It also pokes more fun at the Iraqi Information Minister (remember him?).

It's pretty good. It's about people trying to do the best they can -- a lot of people.

IMDB entry. But there's a lot more meat in the rottentomatoes entry that nacmac posted below.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[akarunway 1]

gotta link?

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[nacmacfeegle 0]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/control_room/

Normal source for decent critiques.
Or Google.

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[CornishChris 5]

Bump.

I watched this last night and found it to be extremely thought provoking and well made. It is worth watching just to see the Al Jazeera point of view of the war in Iraq and, potentially, to see things from the other side.

I would love to be able to discuss this on here but for that people need to go out and watch it!

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

[NEcrewDOG 0]

I watched this documentary last year. It's educational...and shows you a point of view that most Americans don't see. I recommend it.

Skydive Radio!!!

[ryoder 1,590]

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It also pokes more fun at the Iraqi Information Minister (remember him?).

What ever happened to him?! I expected as soon as Iraq fell, he would be doing the late night talk show circuit, and by now would have his own sitcom.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[marcandalysse 0]

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the Iraqi Information Minister (remember him?)....What ever happened to him?!

You may be correct about the talk circuit for Aziz...
This week's newsweek has a paragraph on him:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8101180/site/newsweek/

Footnotes in Senate documents show that Aziz, the urbane English speaker who was Saddam's principal mouthpiece to the outside world, confirmed key details of Saddam's alleged corruption. David Kay, former head of the postwar U.S. team hunting Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, told NEWSWEEK that Aziz and other Saddam aides were eager to discuss corruption in the former regime, and particularly Saddam's efforts to buy off friendly foreigners.

Kay says that Aziz "sang like a canary" about Saddam's effort to use oil deals to buy friendship among French, Russian and U.K. politicos. Kay says that Aziz once told him that if the U.S. government released him from prison, he would tour the United States, telling journalists and the public about the evil deeds of the former Iraqi regime, about Saddam's corruption and about the former dictator's "demented" mental state. Kay says that when he asked Aziz how the United States could be sure Aziz would keep this bargain, Aziz told him: "Mr. David, because you now own me."

"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton

[Guest]

Selective Amnesia, Iraq and the Media
by James Dunnigan
September 21, 2004

The reality is that most of the violence in Iraq comes from a minority of the Sunni Arab minority who are willing to kill because they either want a religious dictatorship (like the one next door in Iran, except with Sunni clerics in charge), or from members of the Baath Party that was, until recently, led by Saddam Hussein. Now you would think that this bunch of cutthroats, whose favorite tactics are kidnapping or threatening unarmed civilians, would be widely reviled. Nope. They are the underdogs, and have been labeled in the media as "insurgents." Since many countries, and their media, opposed the removal of Saddam Hussein from power, the "insurgents" get favorable press. Very favorable press. Iraq's problem with its armed anti-democracy groups is described as "widespread unrest," despite the fact that it is confined to that third of the country (most of it desert) that is dominated by the Sunni Arab minority (about 20 percent of the population). The Baath Party and Islamic radical leaders can read, and make the most of their status as "freedom fighters." Okay, that last tag isn't used very often, as even most journalists gag at so describing two groups so openly dedicated to restoring dictatorship. The anti-government forces and Islamic radicals keep their agendas out of the press as much as possible. Instead, they go on about wanting to "drive out the occupiers." Opinion polls of the entire population consistently state that the majority want the foreign troops to stay until the Sunni Arab gunmen are put down. American policy is to get out as soon as the Iraqi majority has a large enough security force to deal with the remnants of the old dictatorship, and their new allies from al Qaeda and other Islamic radical groups. But this isn't news. That most of Iraq is at peace isn't news. That the reconstruction of Iraq has brought a better life to the majority of Iraqis isn't news. That the anti-government forces have no chance of prevailing isn't news. That American troops have fought a spectacularly successful military campaign (check the historical record for details) isn't news. That the Iraqi "insurgents" are mainly war criminals, gangsters and terrorists isn't news. What is news are headlines that have been consistently wrong since before the war began. What is news is what news directors feel will generate the greatest fear, uncertainty and doubt among their audience. That's what gets people's attention. That's the way the news business has always been. The mass media news business is only some 150 years old, and early on, competitive editors realized that the colorful lie was more profitable than the drab truth. There are those who quickly realized that they could use this fact of life to their advantage. So today, dictators and terrorist organizations hire publicists to get themselves the most useful (if not truthful) portrayal in the media. When it comes to mass violence, playing the press is just another weapon. It worked for Saddam, it's working for his bloody minded supporters, who are still willing to kill for Saddams ideals. But now they are "insurgents" and "freedom fighters." After they are defeated, they will go back to being thugs. And the media will march on, secure in the knowledge that selective amnesia is their friend.
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Bush's Vietnam - NOT!
by Austin Bay
February 8, 2005

The week before the Jan. 30 Iraqi election, Sen. Ted Kennedy branded Iraq a hopeless quagmire. "Bush's Vietnam," Kennedy bellowed.

"Quagmire." "Vietnam." "Bush." Indeed, the Massachusetts senator's dire sermon invoked his fundamentalist faith's demons old and demons au courant. Sen. Barbara Boxer joined the snake dance, adding her own poisonous sanctimony.

The Iraqi people, braving car bombs and waving ink-stained fingers, demonstrated that Ted is more than a bit "tetched," to use the colloquial term. Iraqis weren't going to miss the chance to damn Saddam's legacy of theft, murder, thuggery and war.

Beltway political experts explain Kennedy's action as a tactical political gamble. See, Bay, ole Ted was simply staking out political territory. If the Iraqi elections failed --as the conventional media wisdom said they would -- he was positioned to "take the moral high ground" from the Bush administration. "Moral high ground," accompanied by appropriate friendly media magnification, would translate into the political power to dominate the Bush administration.

It's tactical, Bay, tactical.

No, it's sad. It's blind. It's also bitterly small. That's why I pity Mr. Kennedy.

Jan. 30 was crunch time for the people of Iraq. The War on Terror is crunch time for the 21st century. We are living in a moment that really matters, when blood, sweat, toil and tears fueled by hope and courage can lay the political foundation for a more just and prosperous century.

With the exception of Joe Lieberman, the Democratic Party's senior leaders have either vacillated in their support or been dead wrong about Iraq. This doesn't bode well for the United States. Last July, I met Lieberman at a reception in Baghdad. I told him I wished he were the Democratic nominee for president. He smiled wryly and said he wished he was, too.

Lieberman gets it. He understands the stakes and appreciates the risks, but he also understands the opportunities. He's an armed liberal in the tradition of Harry Truman and Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- and, for that matter, John Kennedy.

America needs the Democratic Party of Truman and FDR -- and that's a party willing to drop A-bombs and "bear any price" for freedom on the planet. Instead, the Democratic National Committee infects itself with Mad How disease, the political bacillus spread by Park Avenue's Typhoid Mary of ulcerous anger, "Mad How"-ard Dean.

This is a serious strategic illness. Symptoms include lack of spine, especially when sustaining international action to defeat tyranny and terror. There are some humorous side-effects: As the disease progresses leftward, particularly among bi-coastal and academic elites, a desire to recast America as France emerges.

The more extreme manifestations include activist nostalgia for 1960s narco-politics, where gray-haired profs with ponytails rant about -- you guessed it -- "quagmires" and "Vietnam."

"Left-wing denial" has become a redundant phrase, just like "left-wing defeatism." Remember, Afghanistan was supposed to be a quagmire. Millions would die in the harsh Himalayan winter. Instead, U.S. forces and Afghan allies quickly drove the Taliban from power and Al Qaeda's claim to "divine sanction" for its war against America went poof. The October 2004 Afghan election ratified the victory.

The Vietnam War -- so costly and destructive -- was strategic defense, a Cold War attempt to buy time while avoiding nuclear conflict until the Soviet Union "mellowed," to use George Kennan's phrase.

Iraq, like Afghanistan, is part of a strategic political and military offensive directed at the dictators and genocidal ideologues whose design for the 21st century is 12th century autocracy imposed by death squads, men in turbans and nukes.

China's Mao Tse-Tung wrote that guerrillas are fish swimming in the sea of the people. Translation: It takes popular support to sustain a genuine guerrilla conflict. The Saddmist thugs and Al Qaeda zealots who kill Iraqi civilians and coalition troops are reactionaries with scant political appeal. They are murderers, not soldiers in a wider people's war.

Check the ink-stained fingers -- the Iraqi elections demonstrated just how politically marginal these fascists are.

Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean can't hear that, can't see that. Saddled with defeatism and blinded by cynicism, their old-time '60s political religion is now the quagmire.
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The Writing on the Wall in Iraq
by James Dunnigan
March 31, 2005

Terrorism isn’t the biggest problem in Iraq, nor is political instability, or even the high crime rate. All of those are easy to solve compared to the biggest, and most persistent problem; corruption. Lack of fair and efficient government has been a problem in this region for thousands of years. When the officials were honest and efficient, mighty empires flourished. But most of the time, the bureaucrats are on the take, and everyone suffered. It’s been going on for so long that it’s been accepted as the way things are. But one of the unexpected side effects of global communications (especially email and satellite news) is that most Iraqis now know that it doesn’t have to be that way. To reinforce these heretical views, visitors, or migrants, to these distant lands of honest government, come back and tell wondrous tales of cops who are not crooks, and politicians going to jail for taking bribes.

But the current reality in Iraq is that of thieves getting back into power. The worst of the lot are the Sunni Arabs, because they have had the most access to government jobs, and public money, for so long. This has been going on since the 16th century, when the Sunni Turks conquered the area, and tossed out the Shia Iranians. The Turks let the Sunni Arabs run the place. As long as the locals remained reasonably quiet, and a sufficient amount of taxes went back to Constantinople each year, the Sunni Arab officials could do as they pleased. And they mainly pleased to steal from anyone not strong enough to resist. This included other Sunni Arabs, but mostly it meant sticking it to the Shia Arabs, Kurds, Jews and Christian Arabs. There used to be a lot of Jews and Christian Arabs in the area, but most of the Christians, and nearly all the Jews, have since emigrated to more hospitable lands (Europe, North America and Israel), along with a lot of Shia Arabs and Kurds.

When Saddam and his Baath Party were overthrown in 2003, it quickly became apparent that there were not enough trained (and experienced) Shia Arab and Kurdish bureaucrats to run the whole country. So Sunni Arab officials were brought back in. And then the thieving began. Billions of dollars went missing. There were Shia Arab and Kurdish thieves as well, but they were not as experienced, or as ruthless, as the Sunni Arab officials. Case in point is the use of Sunni Arab gangs as hit men, to eliminate honest officials who are trying to crack down on corruption.

Another problem is family relationships. Family ties are important in Iraq, and the families tend to be large and expansive. A Sunni Arab police commander might easily have a cousin working for a terrorist group, and another who’s a banker in Europe or Egypt. The police commander can use these connections to get a corruption investigator murdered, and to get stolen money out of the country and laundered in a foreign bank. There are at least a few thousand Sunni Arabs involved in corruption in a big way (many more in smaller ways), and several billion dollars, at least, that have been stolen so far. Do the math. How do you think people are paying for all those new luxury cars and mansions? The crooks are smart. They spread the money around in the family. That buys protection, and places to hide when the going gets very rough.

Much more money has probably just been lost track off during the chaos of the last two years. But that’s an easy problem to fix. More difficult is curing people of the notion that they can use bribes and murder to deal with anyone trying to stop the stealing. Worse yet, anyone not in the family, and that includes just about everyone else in a country of 26 million, is considered a potential victim. And everyone else knows it. It’s hard to run an efficient business when, at any moment, some new bureaucrat can come in and demand a large payoff for the privilege of staying in business. Happens all the time, and Iraqis are tired of it.

But the ancient Babylonian “writing on the wall” (“Mene mene tekel upharshin,” or “you have weighed in the balance and found wanting”) is being seen again. As long as the coalition is around, the clean government crowd has a fighting chance of putting the crooks out of business, or at least on the defensive. For example, the coalition gangbusters effort has developed a lot of evidence of corrupt officials working with the anti-government terrorists. Now that Iraqis have elected a parliament, and are about to make some of those people government ministers, expect to see headlines about which one got caught with his hand in the till. Coalition criminal investigators are a corrupt Iraqis worst nightmare. You can’t bribe them (this is attempted regularly), and they are hard to kill. Some American civilian workers are thought to have been murdered for complaining about corrupt officials, and the heat is on to find the killers, and who paid for the hit. Corrupt elected officials will make a big issue of curbing the ability of coalition forces to investigate crimes and corruption. All in the name of national sovereignty, of course, and making it easier to steal and get away with it.

Iraqi media is another target of corrupt officials, and terrorists as well. Journalists reporting on corruption and terrorism often get killed by those they are reporting on. But the world wide web, and satellite television shows make it impossible to stop the accusations from getting reported. Email not only brings in news of how people can live without corruption and terrorism, it also allows the victims to get word out, quietly and without attracting the attention of hit squads serving terrorism and bad government.

While many Iraqis are willing to pay any price for peace and quiet, and many others are willing to accept intimidation, an increasing number are willing to put their lives on the line for clean government. People know that this will eventually bring rule of law and safety. But first, it’s a fight to the death between groups of Iraqis who have very different views of Iraq’s future. A happy ending is not assured. If enough Iraqis do not step up for honest government, the country will end up with another Saddam.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."