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Dirty Wars
June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
I want to ask every reader of this paper to go see, as soon as you can, the movie Dirty Wars, by Jeremy Scahill and David Riker. It is a highly relevant, courageous, and very well-done movie exposing the real crimes behind the so-called “war on terror”—and yes, I know that Obama doesn’t call it that any more... but if you want to know the reality of the way that he has taken forward what Bush began, if you want to know the scale and scope of it and then how it plays out and what it looks like and feels like on the ground, then you MUST see this film. If you want to see how “the dots” are connected from the surveillance that is now so controversial—and that government spokespeople blandly assure you is for “your safety” and “aimed at the ‘bad guys’”—you must see this. You may think you know all that, but believe me—you don’t know it like this, on this level. And if you are one of those still all-too-many who don’t want to know that... then you REALLY need to see this.
This movie comes at an important time. Truths are being forced into the national consciousness. But what will be done with that truth—what impact will it have—will it lead to further exposures and serious opposition—will those telling the truth be silenced, or worse? These questions are far from settled.
I could not help while watching this movie but think of Bob Avakian’s point how imperialism on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalism on the other “reinforce each other, even while opposing each other.” You see before your eyes this ugly dynamic going on. Nor could I forget the important subsequent point to that, that “at the same time we have to be clear about which of these ‘historically outmodeds’ has done the greater damage and poses the greater threat to humanity: It is the historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system, and in particular the U.S. imperialists.” [BAsics, 1:28, pp. 20-21] And I was also spurred by this to review “Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces For Revolution” by BA—and found the whole first part (“Once More on the Coming Civil War...and Repolarization for Revolution,”) very illuminating and the first section in particular (“Breaking Out of a Deadly Dynamic”) very relevant.
There are other important positive elements to this movie. It is well-done artistically—including the very haunting original music from the Kronos Quartet. There are things to learn about conflicts among the ruling forces themselves and there are aspects of Scahill’s method that are thought-provoking. But the basic point is this: there are truths here that need to be learned and popularized.
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