Customer Reviews

Hidden Wars in the Middle East [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a scathing tape - a 60 minute documentary entitled "Hidden Wars in the Middle East", made before the latest conflict. It's agenda-driven and one-sided, but it opened my eyes a bit wider to the seamy geopolitics of the region and to the probability that the US Government has been guilty of dirty - and deadly - manipulation for over half a century. I definitely think this tape is worth seeing. It was supposedly "received as a court-document by Hon. Judge Leonard Sand during the trial-in-absentia of Osama Bin Laden, accuse of masterminding US embassy blow-ups in Africa."

The "stars" listed on the cover are John Hurt ("academy award winner"), the narrator, and Norman Schwarzkopf, the US General in charge of the Gulf War. (Listing Schwarzkopf is a shameless appeal to a credibility figure: he is interviewed in just a few clips and I sense his remarks are sometimes out of context. I wonder if he endorses the finished product.)

The first part of the tape is a conspiracy argument that the US policy in the middle east since early this century has been every bit as bad as Osama claimed (though neither Osama nor al Qaeda nor terrorism in general is ever mentioned) - i.e., dominated by oil lust, systematic lying to the world and the American public, cynically intervening in government after government, etc. And in addition, if I believe everything I heard on this portion, our objectives and allegiances have vacillated wildly, even within the same administrations. A key theme is that before the 1991 Gulf War, and even after the war, we propped up, supported, aided and abetted Saddam Hussein, with the intent of making him a looming threat. As I understand the tape's argument, we did this for two reasons:
1) to help convince Saudi Arabia and other countries over there that we should "come to their defense" by stationing a large American military presence wherever possible in the region (motivation: to defend our oil industry), and

2) to enable us to sell scads of weapons to "threatened" countries in that region (motivation: to feed our defense industry). Even the embargo against Iraq was supposedly done not to force Saddam out of power, as alleged by the US, but rather to strengthen him. It did this by enabling him to direct scarce resources to quarters he needed for support (thus building a chain of dependency on his regime) while allowing the bulk of the populace to starve. Other countries (France, Britain, etc.) are called to account, but as the 1000 pound gorilla on the block since WWII, the US is featured as the chief villain.

The second part of the tape is a condemnation of the Government and the Pentagon/defense industry for knowingly endangering our own forces by using depleted uranium for our weapon systems in the Gulf War - leading to "Gulf War Syndrome" and to untold numbers of civilian illnesses and birth defects in the areas of conflict. The uranium (238) was readily available to us in large quantities - what else would we do with all that radioactive waste? - and it makes extremely effective weapons because of its density. And when the results of using it began to unravel, our Government mounted and maintained a stonewalling campaign of denial. (Think of the liability!) U238, the documentary points out, has a half-life of 4.6 billion years (we've contaminated the region forever) - plus the depleted uranium is also laced with plutonium and other lovely life-threatening ingredients. What the scientific reality of this information is, I can't say, but the fact that the half-life is so long implies to me that it's not terribly radioactive. Yet Google reveals several articles that corroborate the tape's contention. It's also worth noting that our latest tanks are reinforced with the same material.

This tape was made in 2000, but only recently released for purchase. It is devestatingly critical of the administrations of Bush, Sr, Reagan, and Clinton, without explicitly indicting them; but because it was made in 2000, it's silent on the current administration. Interviews are with a number of spokespersons of varying degrees of credibility, including Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General. Excerpts from an interview with a State Department spokesman is featured several times, and his remarks are basically mocked by the way they are woven in with other commentary.

An effective piece of propaganda, I thought.

This documentary film is one of the most comprehensive, and convincing documentaries I've seen. Some of the facts about the US hidden policy were shocking.
The film includes interviews with David Welch (US Dept. of State),
Gen. Norman Schwarzkope (Desert Storm commander),
Dennis Halliday (Former director of UN Iraq program), and some Iraqis and Jordanians former officials. It starts with the interest of the west in the Middle East (Oil), then it leads to the Gulf war and why the US want to destroy Iraq. It explains how the US encouraged Iraq to invade Kuwait and repeatedly told Saddam that it has no defense agreement with the Kuwaitis.
It shows how the US start building up the allies and the media for the war, despite a possible peaceful solution. How the US lied to the Saudis and convinced them that Iraq was about to invade Saudi Arabia; Why the US did not want to continue the war after liberating Kuwait and all it needed was another day or two, and the entire Iraqi regime would collapse. It gives the reason why America wants Saddam to stay in power for longer time, and not to lift the sanctions whether Iraq complied with them or not.
The most shocking of all, was the Uranium that was used in the war to destroy the tanks. Although it was a prohibited weapon, the Pentagon wanted to try it anyway. No one was warned to take the safety measures using this weapon, neither the allies nor even the American troops.
If you want to be more perceptive about the US policy, and want to know more about the Gulf war, this film is what you are looking for, I have read many books about this subject, but they were never as informative as this film was.
Buy it; you'll never be disappointed. However, you might be disappointed with the US government policy!

I bought this video and have since watched it 5 times. This is an eye opener at this time in our world. A good video to for an introduction to why some of this mess in the Middle East is going on! It reveals betrayals, power struggles over OIL & their interests in/of The Middle East! You wont be disappointed in ordering this one!

every documentry about the middle-east crisis has either over exaggerated of under-exaggerated united states involvement this one completly ignores it maybe this is to tells it from the perseptive of those in the middle-east who are in the center of the conflict [israel and palestine]after all what do i know iam only a kid.

Everyone must see this! Because our media did not give us the REAL story behind the war.......it is very helpful. Great to watch and well researched!!!