The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
The only Sundance Film I've been able to catch so far this festival is "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" a lucid and very important film.
I wait listed this film last Saturday, but you don't have to go to Sundance or wait too long to see this film, which will be debuting on HBO February 22nd.
Since our nation attacked another country, I feel it's the duty of every American to bear witness to the evil of this war. This film offers a glimpse of some of that evil. It shows us some of the damage that we do to ourselves and to others when we choose to unleash the evil that is war. It's also an exploritory look at how everyday people can commit such atrocities.
The film has interviews with many of the soldiers that have served time for their part in the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and interviews of some of Abu Ghraib's victims, mixed in with clips of Bush and Rumsfeld spouting off B.S. and the infamous photos of the tortured detainees.
The director, Rory Kennedy, was present at the screening to answer questions. One of the questions that came from an audience member was regarding an interview in the film of John Yoo, formerly of the Justice department and according to Jack Huberman's 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America a "Counselor of War and Torture" (and also #35 on that list). Yoo gave the justification that the methods used in Abu Ghraib were justified because these people are terrorists who torture others (not taking into account that 75 - 90% of those held at Abu Ghraib at the time were estimated to be innocent). The audience member was concerned that there was nothhing to counter Yoo's argument in the film, which he believed is an attractive argument of the right-wing. Kennedy stated that she believed that the film in it's entirety countered Yoo's argument -- but then she went on to tell of another George's response to prisoners of war -- George Washington, who regardless of the brutatlity of the British on the American POWs, responded with a higher moral authority. I found the story in greater detail here . The whole piece (written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., brother of the director of this film, incidentally) is worth reading, but the quote from Washington was recorded as this:
Treat them with humanity, and Let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British army in their Treatment of our unfortunate brethren.
I wait listed this film last Saturday, but you don't have to go to Sundance or wait too long to see this film, which will be debuting on HBO February 22nd.
The film has interviews with many of the soldiers that have served time for their part in the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and interviews of some of Abu Ghraib's victims, mixed in with clips of Bush and Rumsfeld spouting off B.S. and the infamous photos of the tortured detainees.
The director, Rory Kennedy, was present at the screening to answer questions. One of the questions that came from an audience member was regarding an interview in the film of John Yoo, formerly of the Justice department and according to Jack Huberman's 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America a "Counselor of War and Torture" (and also #35 on that list). Yoo gave the justification that the methods used in Abu Ghraib were justified because these people are terrorists who torture others (not taking into account that 75 - 90% of those held at Abu Ghraib at the time were estimated to be innocent). The audience member was concerned that there was nothhing to counter Yoo's argument in the film, which he believed is an attractive argument of the right-wing. Kennedy stated that she believed that the film in it's entirety countered Yoo's argument -- but then she went on to tell of another George's response to prisoners of war -- George Washington, who regardless of the brutatlity of the British on the American POWs, responded with a higher moral authority. I found the story in greater detail here . The whole piece (written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., brother of the director of this film, incidentally) is worth reading, but the quote from Washington was recorded as this:
Treat them with humanity, and Let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British army in their Treatment of our unfortunate brethren.
