"Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror by John Pilger

BrotherInIslam7

La Illaha Illa Allah
Staff member
:salam2:

Breaking The Silence - Truth and Lies in the War on Terror is a documentary by John Pilger. (Run time : 51:05 minutes)

John Pilger dissects the truth and lies in the 'war on terror'. Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.

In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban".

In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination. Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'.

While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks: "Is this Bush's Vietnam?"

Warning : Some graphic images of injured and dead civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq are shown in the video

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JenGiove

Junior Member
:salam2:

I have yet to watch this and may not at this time since I have other, more personal things, that are affecting me but I would humbly remind everyone that this was from 2001 and now it is 2011. Things are changing and control of the area is slowly being handed over to better trained Afgan police and military forces.

I think of the war and the coalition presence like this...you would not leave a house to be controlled and run by toddlers or inexperienced sitters because otherwise the house would fail, the laundry pile up and the food would run out. No, you teach and slowly pass over control as experience grows.

....and just as a reminder, Bush is no longer president. It takes time for the new president to change policy and actions of a former president. Sometimes it can not be done. Also, while a president is answerable to the people through Congress, we, the common people, do not sit at the table during the meetings so we do not have ALL the information needed to form an accurate opinion. We can only form one on what little we do know.
 

BrotherInIslam7

La Illaha Illa Allah
Staff member
:salam2:

I have yet to watch this and may not at this time since I have other, more personal things, that are affecting me but I would humbly remind everyone that this was from 2001 and now it is 2011. Things are changing and control of the area is slowly being handed over to better trained Afgan police and military forces.

I think of the war and the coalition presence like this...you would not leave a house to be controlled and run by toddlers or inexperienced sitters because otherwise the house would fail, the laundry pile up and the food would run out. No, you teach and slowly pass over control as experience grows.


:wasalam:

The documentary focuses on what Coalition force have done post war and their actions (or lack of it) in the rebuilding processes too and who they have put in power in the various regions of Afghanistan. In short, they have assisted thugs and warlords get in control of vast lands of Afghanistan in return of their military support to the coalition forces.

If you watch the documentary, you will see that the sinister motives behind these wars have been exposed and their promises of rebuilding nations or bettering lives of people of Afghanistan and Iraq have been found to be undelivered and forgotten about.

The reason why I put this documentary up here is because it is one of the few that has based it's story line on investigative journalism. Pilger has interviewed the ones who are barely given airtime on popular news channel giving a different perspective to these 2 wars. And different perspectives are often needed to understand the intricate complexities of a conflict/political event and John Pilger's works are usually quite insightful.
 

Bawar

Struggling2Surrender
:wasalam: brother

It is very easy for those who dont have to face the bullets to say it was a war for the right reasons, but I think the truth can be heard from those people who have seen it all and still going through it.

I feel very skeptical, but compelled to mention a little story of my own visit to Afghanistan three months ago. I was in Jalal Abad when reports came from my village (where I was born and where my parents are from) that the foreign forces had gone into a house overnight and killed two young brothers. The people of the entire community attested to the fact that the young boys were the children of a very poor farmer and were carpenters themsevles.

When the foreign forces went inside, they tied all the women, children and the old father of two boys outside in the yard of the house in the chilling cold of winter and were kept there till sunrise.

Throughout the whole night, the military personnel and their dogs were inside with the boys and the rest of the family had no idea what was happening inside the room. Wehn the foreign forces left and the family went inside the room, they found the two brothers dead, their faces eaten by the dogs.

When reports of this reached Jalal Abad, most of the people I know went speechless. All I could see on their faces was dispair, helplessness and humiliation.

Personally, I wished people in the west who think their governments stand for human rights and are proud of their military could have true sense of what the people of Afghanistan are going through.
 
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