Shock and Awe Film Review

 The movie Shock and Awe is about the reports of the Knight-Ridder newspaper reporting on the Iraq War. They were the only prominent paper in this country that questioned the narrative. The movie begins with a soldier talking about his service in the Iraq War, he states some statistics about the Iraq War explaining how it was wrong and how he sacrificed for his country based on the lie. He asks how the hell did this happen and the movie plays a montage of various military figures, various politicians, and President Bush talking about the Iraq War. The movie then shows a journalist in a training exercise, the exercise then stops when it is reported that a plane has hit the Twin Towers. 

A CNN broadcast, playing in the Knight Ridder office, states early in the film that it believes the Bin Laden group- Al Qaeda was responsible for the attack. The media also attempts to make a connection between Bin Laden and Iraq. John Walcott believes that this is absurd because Saddam Hussein is a secular leader. Due to Americans having little to no knowledge about the Middle East and Islam, the government and Media could fabricate narratives.  

British Politician Tony Benn meeting with Saddam Hussein to try to prevent a war

9/11 is an event in American history whose echoes are still felt to this day. It was an attack by a foreign power on American soil. This has not happened since and the last time it happened besides 9/11 was the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was far away from the core territory of the United States. Without 9/11 there would have been no "justification" for the war in Iraq that Bush could give the American people. We may have gone to war with Iraq later, but if we hadn't America wouldn't have wasted 2 trillion dollars. This money could have gone into helping improve the lives of our citizens. In addition to this, 300,000 Iraqis wouldn't have died in the war itself. It is also unlikely ISIS would rise to power because there wouldn't be a power vacuum that they could exploit. The movie talks about how removing Saddam from power will just create a vacuum. 

A major consequence of the Iraq War was the damage to the US reputation abroad. France, Turkey, and Germany refused to enter the war because they did not believe it was justified. The US invading Iraq also set a dangerous precedent where disputes could be settled by violence instead of diplomacy. It is possible that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if the US had not drastically changed the norms of international relations with the war in Iraq. Russia may have decided to seek protection for Russians in Ukraine through diplomacy instead. America cannot condemn other nations for their aggression, while at the same time launching an unprovoked war. 

German Chancellor Schröder and President Bush discussing Iraq

Throughout the movie, the paper interviews government officials who are reluctant to give their opinion on the situation. They all say that there is no way that there could be a connection between Sadaam Hussein and Al Qaeda. They say Saadam is a secular leader. They do not reveal their names because they feel they will be fired. The Iraq War and the Patriot Act were passed easily by Congress because many felt that it would be political suicide not to go along with it. 

One of my favorite parts of the movie is the subplot between Warren Strobel and his girlfriend. She is an intelligent but uninformed person and serves as a way for the audience to better understand the Iraq War. She eventually sees that the war was based on false pretenses and Bush was just trying to expand America's imperial influence. I also thought it was funny that Mr. Strobel's first question to her was are you a Democrat or a Republican. Many people are not curious and do not seek to understand other nation's perspectives on international relations. She does a lot of research about the division in the Muslim world, many people would not be interested in doing that unfortunately. People must look at a problem through different perspectives because even if they disagree with a viewpoint, they will be better able to combat it. After all, they can understand why someone would think that. You are better able to persuade others when you try to understand them. 

This movie shows the Bush Administration wanted to go to war with Iraq since he took power. 9/11 was used as a pretext to justify the invasion. The film also shows that Iraq did not and could not have weapons of mass destruction. People who tried to fight back against the war were not welcomed. We can see similar things happening today with the situation in Israel. I do not believe Biden wanted the Israeli conflict, but Benjamin Netanyahu wants a war with the Palestinians so he can secure the whole territory for his country. Like George Bush, Netanyahu's government is filled with warmongers, many of whom reject the idea of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu is unpopular in Israel and hopes to use the war as a justification to hold on to power. There have been many protests in support of Palestine, and while I probably disagree with the protestors on many things, it is a gross violation of the spirit of the First Amendment that they were brutally suppressed. The movie shows that those in power will lie to try to maintain their power and push the country into war based on lies. The press needs to be adversarial to the government and point out its lies. Knight-Ridder was the only paper that was willing to do that.