Spinning Iraq

When our soldiers in Iraq helped, what appeared to be crowds of Iraqis tear down the statue of Saddam Hussein, I watched and believed. Later there was talk that there were hardly any Iraqis in the square that day, and perhaps, some of what happened was staged. But, after watching the documentary “Control Room” I see that the whole thing was staged for American viewers. I don’t know if anyone else in the world was fooled.

Control Room is a commentary on the early stages of Gulf War II as seen by Al Jazeera reporters, a couple of American reporters and an army press officer. “Their” reporters, I was surprised to note, look, act and even talk like “our” reporters in that they speak English, wear western clothes, with some exceptions for head gear, and try to cover the war as best they can. They smiled, they didn’t talk “jihad”, and seemed like all around normal people.

I was surprised to see “our” reporters disbelieve what they were told by our military briefers, and complaining that control of the press is tighter than in Gulf War I. They also didn’t like all the attention the Jessica Lynch rescue got from the military briefers; they wanted more news of the war. I didn’t hear any of that reported at the time. Then there was the army press officer who seemed sincere in his debate with Al Jazeera reporters about our mission, but suddenly it all sounded so much like spin. Ditto Donald Rumsfeld talking about Al Jazeera’s lies and biased reporting. Talk about spin. And just who was it who spun the tearing down of Saddam’s statue in the square? A reporter from Al Jazeera remarked that he knew the scene in the square was spin because the Iraqis doing the tearing down were all young men with dialects that weren’t from Baghdad. He would know that because he was from Baghdad.

Control Room is a documentary without a narrator, just people talking to the camera, or having conversations with each other. I found myself feeling uncomfortable watching this film. I was embarrassed and ashamed of our government’s actions, and of Americans, who are so ignorant of those actions, ignorant for what is happening in the rest of the world, and for not caring. Oh, we respond when a catastrophe strikes, like the tsunami in Asia. We will send money and goods, but be totally oblivious to how people live, what they think, and how they perceive the world. I didn’t even know where some of the affected countries and islands were.

Perhaps, instead of more computers for classrooms, something our educators tell us will improve our children’s education, we need more history and cultural anthropology books to educate our children, to improve not only their lives, but the quality of lives the world over.