Iraq for Sale & Why We Fight

[Valandil]

These documentaries are a couple of years old, but they were recently on Encore again so I DVRed them a few weeks back and finally go around to watching them again. I had seen Why We Fight last year but I had not seen Iraq for Sale until I got around to clearing out my DVR. I think they are both excellent films and provide a great deal of thought-provoking material, especially if you watch them together. As much as I abhor lawyers and the American political system films like these really make me reconsider my post-graduate path and to apply for law school in order to have an avenue into the political system. Obviously the system can't be changed from the inside, but it's generally easier to destroy things...bodies, bases, systems, etc from the inside rather than constantly assaulting it from the outside.

IMDB links to the documentaries in question:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815181/board/threads/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436971/

Now I'm sure there will be the usual partisan, toe-the-company-line responses from someone out there and that's fine. I'm not saying every single piece of evidence in either of these films is incontrovertible evidence. Nor am I saying that the Republican Party and their warhawk cronies are entirely to blame; both parties are full of power-hungry individuals whose favorite past-times are serving very wealthy business interests. However, if you can watch these films and not at least come to the realization that something is seriously wrong with the status quo, then I think you disqualify yourself from ever being described as reasonable or responsible.

The only way things are going to change are if people, ESPECIALLY young people (I'm 28 myself) rise up en masse and start taking back what is rightfully theirs; namely the freedom and responsibility of self-government. It kinda reminds me of a dialogue and a monologue from two of my favorite movies:

The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.