Iraq docs, 1/11.

Chris Barsanti finds "the number of intelligent people I've heard say or seen write that they're sick of all the Iraq documentaries" an "odd, and somewhat troubling reaction":

Like it or not, this war is our responsibility. It doesn't matter if you voted for Dubya or not, Americans invaded Iraq and as Americans we bear that blame. In short: we don't have the right to be disinterested in this war. It's offensive to the people (Iraqis and Americans) dying over there right now to act above it all, as though the war is just another TV show we've become tired of.

Maybe an Oscar angle will rekindle interest. Perhaps that what Ed Pilkington was thinking when he wrote his piece in the Guardian on Iraq in Fragments, The War Tapes, My Country, My Country and The Ground Truth: "Of the four Iraq documentaries to make the Oscar longlist, [James] Longley's is the most obviously cinematic, which may well endear him to the Academy."

Similarly, Stephen Applebaum in the Independent on Iraq in Fragments, where he quickly makes the point that it does indeed stand a chance against An Inconvenient Truth so that he can get to the meat of his piece, his talk with Longley - who tells him, "I think a lot of what was done by the United States when they entered the country served to fan the flames of sectarian division and ethnic division."

Shaken by The Ground Truth, Edward Copeland finds the way "the military has treated those suffering psychological trauma... just as much an infuriating fuckup as this entire foolish enterprise has proved to be."

Related: At openDemocracy, Paul Rogers explains why "the Bush administration's decision to surge the forces in Iraq is good news for al-Qaida."

Posted by dwhudson at January 11, 2007 1:08 PM