Musafir's Musings

"America's wars do not happen just to Americans." The Guardian, UK, published an item that caught my attention. Richard Williams wrote mainly about the film Loin du Viêt-Nam (Far from Vietnam) recently released in London. He mentioned Sam Mendes' film Jarhead (2005), about the first Gulf war and ".....how muted the opposition to the present war in Iraq has been, by comparison with the chorus of anger that eventually helped to undermine the American government's belligerence". Very true. There is no dearth of talent, and there is strong feeling among millions of people in America and abroad about the unjustified war against Iraq. Yet there has not been any notable film about the war. There is need for movies that depict the horrors, the grief of families who have suffered directly and indirectly from this war both here in the United States and in Iraq. Members of the "Coalition" were conned, bullied or paid to support the war. The hoax called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and its costs must be exposed, and movies can have greater impact on people than reports in print media and on television. The numbers as of February 2nd: U.S. Soldiers - dead 2249 Injured 7683; Iraqi civilians - dead 28293 (Min.) 31900 (Max). Financial cost - $440 billion and climbing. The Bush and Blair cabal foisted this war on us in 2003 and are still merrily continuing with the lies.