“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”.
