"Death to America!" - Amin

“It is okay for the government to mislead in order to promote security.”

It most certainly is not. Or at least mostly.

Before watching Control Room, I had a juxtaposing perspective on this prompt to that I have now. The way I saw it, in the case of an economic crisis or structural problems, the public should not be informed of the issue because something is only good for as long as people perceive it that way. Now I see that my scope was limited to viewing security as a sense that the public feels like there are no issues that can harm them. I still believe that in the case of internal issues, it is okay for the government to mislead to make the public think everything’s dandy, but have only recently realized the further extent of the prompt.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was certainly not something that was an internal issue for America, and the danger (or at least alleged danger) to American security was certainly not hidden from the American public. This is an example of a different kind of misleading, where this “nonsense” as a Jazeera journalist calls it in the film is established to evoke fear in the Americans. This fear of being attacked causes the public to consider attacks and takeovers in Iraq to be acceptable and even respectable, for the sake of “freedom” and “security” as it is constantly reiterated by government officials and soldiers.

Ultimately, this allows the American military to act almost without boundaries, because as an Iraqi journalist stated, “What can we do? We just shut up.” I found it almost comical that President Bush took all but three sentences in this celebration of American success to suggest that the UN lifts economic sanctions in Iraq, pretty much confirming where his priorities are.

Many may look at this situation as having negative consequences limited to Iraq, delineated by the economic and political disarray they were left in and remain in today, but I believe the real issue lies in the social factor of this tragic story. In the end, the Americans got what they wanted, and left Iraq (but not really because they’re still there) with control over oil reserves and a radical view of the Middle East. Perhaps unintentionally, the American media radicalized the Iraqis and Arabs, even alienating them. Those within the American public who were left with the biased view of this conflict most likely have an alienated view on Middle Eastern inhabitants, and although being scared of everything and everyone is perhaps the way to security, it would be our failure as social beings.

What gives me hope is that AL Jazeera News came out of this story as the hero. I hope they can continue “ruffling a lot of feathers” and challenging ‘fact’, and break down a powerful statement by a journalist in the film: “Objectivity is a mirage”.