Control Room
Last week I saw Control Room, a documentary about Al Jazeera's coverage as the Second Gulf War starts up. I would HIGHLY recommend this as a rental, I don't think it's worth a buy as I don't think anyone's going to want to watch it more then once but I think it's worth a look see.
I wanted to blog about it as there were TWO moments where my eyes grew five sizes bigger to take in what I was watching and there was another moment where I sadly was nodding my head as I could understand the reporters annoyance at the U.S. Army.
The first surprise moment was when one of the Al Jazeera reporters was talking to an Army representative. The reporter was asking the Army rep some questions and things seemed to be going smoothly as the Army guy explained the reason for war... and like the republicans he just seemed to be going on auto pilot as he explained for the Nth time that Saddam has WMDs and has threatened the U.S. with them.
The Al Jazeera reporter then asked a simple question. And it was so simple and beautiful that I wondered why nobody else had asked this question.
When?
The Army rep. was taken by complete surprise. NO ONE had asked this before. When what ? He responded, clearly not understanding what he was being asked.
When did Saddam THREATEN the U.S. ? When?
The Army representative then blinked and seemed to go back to his script, explaining that while Saddam had not ACTUALLY threatened the U.S. with the WMDs, him having them WAS A THREAT to the U.S. as he could give them to the U.S.'s enemies for them to us on the U.S.
I just loved this question, as I felt it really was a question that should've been asked. Esp. as I feel part of it is the implication that W. was 'afraid' of Saddam. I mean think about it- it's not that Saddam threatened the U.S., it's that W. FELT threatened by the idea of Saddam with WMDs.
The second was seeing more of OUR soldiers in Iraq. There were a bunch of places in the film showing the U.S. Army waving their guns around- ordering Iraqis to drop their weapons, lie down and/or face a certain way. The Iraqis were semi quick to drop their weapons but otherwise seemed unresponsive. Now in two or so hours of Control Room I saw more film of the Iraqi war then I have in the past year, I didn't understand why the Iraqis weren't following directions. I mean if some RED STATE yokel with a gun told me to kiss the pavement, I'd be slipping the pavement some tongue. Then I realized, OUR ARMY was yelling in ENGLISH. At no points did they pull out a card with Arabic phrases like 'look right!', 'drop to the ground!', or 'where are your oil fields?' written phonetically on them. At no time did I see a Army translator repeating his Sgt's orders in Arabic to the Iraqis. No, the 'Army we went to war with' wasn't trained how to properly speak to the natives.
I sorta knew how unprepared we were for this war, never mind that it was on W.'s time table... but it still amazes me how the brass messed up.
And that leads to the head shaking annoying scene. We see the press conference where the U.S. military tells the reporters of the 55 card deck of Iraq's most wanted. Then a reporter asks a pretty sensible question- Hey can I get one? The answer No. The follow up, Can I see one? The response, We only have one and you can't see it.
So after telling the press corps that there is a deck with the Army's most wanted, so that soldiers can identify who the Army is looking for the Army won't let the press know who's on the cards.
Now I personally think they just shouldn't've told the press about the cards, as that lead to many punk'd decks and made the press MORE interested in who we were hunting. If the Army did their job, they either should've just handed over a deck of cards and let the press get on with their complaining about who was on it and where- or the deck shouldn't have been mentioned. It's another time of the Army making itself look bad.
I'd still recommend Control Room because even though I mentioned the stuff that stayed with me, there are a few more good parts in it and I think it should be seen as a way to try and balance the news seen here in the U.S.
I wanted to blog about it as there were TWO moments where my eyes grew five sizes bigger to take in what I was watching and there was another moment where I sadly was nodding my head as I could understand the reporters annoyance at the U.S. Army.
The first surprise moment was when one of the Al Jazeera reporters was talking to an Army representative. The reporter was asking the Army rep some questions and things seemed to be going smoothly as the Army guy explained the reason for war... and like the republicans he just seemed to be going on auto pilot as he explained for the Nth time that Saddam has WMDs and has threatened the U.S. with them.
The Al Jazeera reporter then asked a simple question. And it was so simple and beautiful that I wondered why nobody else had asked this question.
When?
The Army rep. was taken by complete surprise. NO ONE had asked this before. When what ? He responded, clearly not understanding what he was being asked.
When did Saddam THREATEN the U.S. ? When?
The Army representative then blinked and seemed to go back to his script, explaining that while Saddam had not ACTUALLY threatened the U.S. with the WMDs, him having them WAS A THREAT to the U.S. as he could give them to the U.S.'s enemies for them to us on the U.S.
I just loved this question, as I felt it really was a question that should've been asked. Esp. as I feel part of it is the implication that W. was 'afraid' of Saddam. I mean think about it- it's not that Saddam threatened the U.S., it's that W. FELT threatened by the idea of Saddam with WMDs.
The second was seeing more of OUR soldiers in Iraq. There were a bunch of places in the film showing the U.S. Army waving their guns around- ordering Iraqis to drop their weapons, lie down and/or face a certain way. The Iraqis were semi quick to drop their weapons but otherwise seemed unresponsive. Now in two or so hours of Control Room I saw more film of the Iraqi war then I have in the past year, I didn't understand why the Iraqis weren't following directions. I mean if some RED STATE yokel with a gun told me to kiss the pavement, I'd be slipping the pavement some tongue. Then I realized, OUR ARMY was yelling in ENGLISH. At no points did they pull out a card with Arabic phrases like 'look right!', 'drop to the ground!', or 'where are your oil fields?' written phonetically on them. At no time did I see a Army translator repeating his Sgt's orders in Arabic to the Iraqis. No, the 'Army we went to war with' wasn't trained how to properly speak to the natives.
I sorta knew how unprepared we were for this war, never mind that it was on W.'s time table... but it still amazes me how the brass messed up.
And that leads to the head shaking annoying scene. We see the press conference where the U.S. military tells the reporters of the 55 card deck of Iraq's most wanted. Then a reporter asks a pretty sensible question- Hey can I get one? The answer No. The follow up, Can I see one? The response, We only have one and you can't see it.
So after telling the press corps that there is a deck with the Army's most wanted, so that soldiers can identify who the Army is looking for the Army won't let the press know who's on the cards.
Now I personally think they just shouldn't've told the press about the cards, as that lead to many punk'd decks and made the press MORE interested in who we were hunting. If the Army did their job, they either should've just handed over a deck of cards and let the press get on with their complaining about who was on it and where- or the deck shouldn't have been mentioned. It's another time of the Army making itself look bad.
I'd still recommend Control Room because even though I mentioned the stuff that stayed with me, there are a few more good parts in it and I think it should be seen as a way to try and balance the news seen here in the U.S.
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