Dirty Wars

Dirty Wars is a startling documentary that would most likely have (most) Americans up in arms in disgust over the senseless victims depicted in the film weren't they Muslims half a world away.

The Nation journalist Jeremy Scahill dives into the murky waters of American counter-terrorism efforts after 9/11 and discovers that drone attacks and targeted kills might actually be turning the tide in a war we believe ourselves to be winning ... as each new death creates tens to hundreds of new anti-American citizens in the world who view us as the new axis of evil as most of the deaths are collateral damage of innocent women and children. Scahill doesn't highlight the fact that we have enemies in the world that have caused us to increase these attacks; but he is simply making note/drawing attention to how "dirty" this "war" has become (war in nations we have never declared war upon). In places that once embraced Americans and our way of life, our continued use of drones and brutal attacks makes the survivors question who we are and wonder what our goals have become.

Some Americans and former military question this same thing -- what are we doing?!? When answers no longer make sense and lack logic, it is time to step back and re-evaluate what we are doing ... but the powers-that-be don't and won't. Began under President George W. Bush and continued heavily under our current President Obama, Dirty Wars exposes the acts of a super-secret branch of the military (JSOC - Joint Special Operations Command) who answers solely to our president. Their covert villainy (not always bad and villainous I must point out) can be easily re-written and members can become heroes at the drop of a hat -- or the execution of a major power player in the world of terror (Osama).

The doc is eye-opening and it actually made my eyes tear up a time or two over the deaths of innocent people (it isn't for the faint of heart as we see many graphic photos of the dead -- many of whom are children)... who happened to be Muslim. Oh ... the horror of THAT (my tears)! No ... oh the horror, period.

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America's expanding covert wars.

Regarding Scahill, I may be a little biased. His work with exposing Blackwater impressed me, I was able to briefly meet him and found him a charming person, and he happens to be from Milwaukee. As a fellow Wisconsinite, I cannot help but root for the guy.

Here, he investigates the United States military and government cover-up of the deaths of five civilians, including two pregnant women killed by US soldiers from the Joint Special Operations Command. Interestingly, he focuses on this one case when this is probably not an uncommon thing (what we call collateral damage). This puts a human face on the dead rather just make them one of a multitude.

We see the refusal of Congress to listen, particularly Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (another Wisconsin native). Why does no one care about what our forces do overseas? Also interesting, we see that there appears to be a coordinated effort for the harassing of journalists, both American and in the Middle East. Scahill himself was apparently hacked and threatened, and another journalist is shown imprisoned for speaking out.

Trevor Johnston of Time Out London found the film to be a "gripping investigative doc, which plays out like a classic conspiracy thriller as it follows a trail of clues to the heart of darkness behind President Obama's good-guy facade." I think this is fairly spot on, though to use a phrase like "heart of darkness" or to single out Obama seems off. The real message is here is not that this happens, but that it is standard operating procedure regardless of who is in power.

One of the negative reviewers, Douglas Valentine of Dissident Voice, complained that "the film is so devoid of historical context, and so contrived, as to render it a work of art, rather than political commentary. And as art, it is pure self-indulgence." The second point I wholeheartedly disagree with. While of a higher quality than the average documentary, that should not be a strike against it. The first point is quite valid -- those who do not have a solid background regarding the war on terror may not understand the situations presented. As the film is short (roughly 90 minutes), a few minutes of context would not have bogged it down.

Although not expressed by either of these two gentlemen, I expect the biggest criticism would come from those who want to label Scahill an America-hating liberal for his negative outlook on our military. That is a fair criticism, and I do not know what his motivations are. But to not question power -- especially the powers that we pay for and are subject too -- is to blindly accept it.

None other than former president Teddy Roosevelt said, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president and to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonous to the American public." Well said, and it is people like Scahill who prove the value of this criticism.

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill was on Real Time With Bill Maher a few months ago and when he was explaining to Maher how baffled he was that President Barack Obama could "sell" conservative ideas of drones to liberals is when I knew I wanted to know more about his methods and his thinking. He perfectly articulates a point that is worth questioning on why Obama would claim to want the people to have a transparent government when methods and legislation on things like drones are so shady and gray. But Scahill's documentary Dirty Wars doesn't explore this idea but puts a magnifying glass on the ambiguous term the "War on Terror," which Americans are constantly told is the third war they are fighting. It's hard to follow the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with the abundance of confusion, misinformation, and disorganization that has come in the way of reporting them, so how difficult is it to follow one that really doesn't have a specific enemy.

A little footnote: my generation has lived two-thirds where war, conflict, and high-level recruitment are prominent aspects of our society. With the War on Terror, however, Scahill illustrates how the United States has effectively worked themselves into a war that may never end. It has gotten to the point where there is no such thing as "declaring war" anymore, at least for the United States. We simply act with impunity, utilize unmanned drones to spy and attack suspicious countries, and act with a deplorable sense of recklessness. The War on Terror element of American foreign policy is the equivalent of a knee-jerk reaction and placing a lever that can launch bombs, deploy drones, and attack countries in the hand of someone with a violent and unpredictable arm-spasm.

What happened? How did it get like this? How did the United States, the country that believes it should be looked up to by other countries, get like this and become this controlling and involved? Scahill attempts to provide not really answers but temporary responses to these questions as he explores the land of Kabul, Afghanistan, investigating a raid in a village known as Khataba where five innocent civilians, two of them pregnant women, were killed by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Scahill talks with JSOC, who have been given an immense amount of power under Obama, and is even lucky enough to speak with a specific member of the command who's voice and image is disguised to obviously protect identity. When Scahill asks if they were given more power Obama, for confirmation of his beliefs, the man replies, "we were permitted to attack harder, faster, and quicker with the full support of the White House." Also attempted to piece together is the reason President Obama authorized the killing of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, which also prompted attacks on a poor village in Yemen, as if skipping the step of declaring and diving right in to the act of war.

Dirty Wars is only eighty-two minutes long, but stuffs so much information, details, and insider information into its time-frame that it could almost be an hour longer. In efforts to try and coherently illustrate how the War on Terror effects other countries, Scahill sort of takes us on the exhausting and tireless journey of what it means to be an investigative journalists. Not only is it about asking tough questions, but it's about piecing the information together yourself. We see long stretches of day and night are spent with Scahill, by himself, drawing a cohesive timeline of events and piecing together exactly what it means to be on the frontlines of danger.

Because of this, Dirty Wars is edited together to be reminiscent of an espionage or a large-scale thriller, with familiar music cues, scenes capturing the intensity of a certain situations, and the globe-trotting aspect conducted with dramatic effect. This would be an issue if working in Afghanistan and traveling to countries like Iraq, Somalia, and Yemen weren't so similar to that of a thriller. The slickness of the editing and the espionage-undertones work in the films favor because they are only making the sequences out to be a bit more suspenseful than they already are. The scenes are inherently suspenseful and to capture them in this way doesn't seem so much as an attempt to sensationalize that but just provide a touch of emphasis on their behalf. Even early on, Scahill tells us through narration that the roads in Afghanistan are marked by color. Green is a safe zone, red is a danger zone, and with black, "don't even try it," he states. Going on to say how "the Taliban rule the night in Afghanistan," you tell me, is it so bad that Dirty Wars plays itself a bit like a thriller? Dirty Wars is a strong work of investigative journalism not because it focuses on a person with the title but because in addition to shedding light (or at least trying to erase some of the grayness) on the War on Terror aspect of American foreign policy it shows the methods investigative journalists take in order to get their information released to the public. It's a constant grind from beginning-to-end, that comes with the soul-crushing and frustrating conclusion that you can work for years and still never get a clear answer or even an explanation as to why this kind of thing happens.

Starring: Jeremy Scahill. Directed by: Richard Rowley.

Written by David Riker and celebrated investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, the film follows Scahill as he unpeals the layers of the Joint Special Operations Command, the powerful covert military outfit that answers directly—and only—to the president, and whose maneuvers in the Middle East have left more civilians dead than we can know.

The film shows the complicity of both the U.S. government and media in covering up massacres and smearing journalists who do more than phone in PR-spun news.

It's compelling journalism and a fascinating story with which all Americans should familiarize themselves – especially as drones and airstrikes occur with greater frequency and spread to countries such as Somalia, Yemen, and beyond.

Skip at your own risk.

Finally someone brave enough to uncover US war crimes against innocent people. Jeremy Scahill and his team did a great job for humanity despite facing a lot of difficulties. i believe every one who has heart and some humanity left in him/her will be influenced by the movie and try to understand what US and other governments around the world are killing and torturing innocent civilians specially Muslims and covering up their crimes by just using a disguise instrument of terrorism and national security concerns. Those so called patriots denying that their government could do such a thing should consider themselves in the condition of victims who are killed every single night by US. There should be global moment to make US, NATO and puppet government held responsible for what they are doing.