Michael Manning is an American deep-sea diver turned documentary filmmaker. He recently went to the Iraqi town of Fallujah. Why?
"For the past two years, Manning has been making a documentary, American Voices, crisscrossing the United States and asking hundreds of Americans if they could explain why, exactly, the U.S. is at war with Iraq", wrote the Santa Barbara Independent on March 24.
"He was profoundly disheartened, he said, by the lack of facts and accurate information out there. Very few of the people he interviewed could back up their opinions with facts. Even worse, he realized, neither could he. That’s when he decided he had to see what life was like on the receiving end of Operation Enduring Freedom. “As an American citizen,” said Manning, “I felt personally responsible for what happened to the people of Fallujah. We live in a democracy. In our democracy, my government is conducting a military operation over there in my name. To me, it doesn’t get more direct than that."
His eyewitness account gives credence to the claim that the US occupation is in fact fuelling the insurgency, due primarily to its heavy-handedness and indiscriminate killing.
"For the past two years, Manning has been making a documentary, American Voices, crisscrossing the United States and asking hundreds of Americans if they could explain why, exactly, the U.S. is at war with Iraq", wrote the Santa Barbara Independent on March 24.
"He was profoundly disheartened, he said, by the lack of facts and accurate information out there. Very few of the people he interviewed could back up their opinions with facts. Even worse, he realized, neither could he. That’s when he decided he had to see what life was like on the receiving end of Operation Enduring Freedom. “As an American citizen,” said Manning, “I felt personally responsible for what happened to the people of Fallujah. We live in a democracy. In our democracy, my government is conducting a military operation over there in my name. To me, it doesn’t get more direct than that."
His eyewitness account gives credence to the claim that the US occupation is in fact fuelling the insurgency, due primarily to its heavy-handedness and indiscriminate killing.
4 Comments:
First of all, nice to see you blogging Anthony. Yep it looks like Fallujah is a mess, I remember reading and then posting some months ago about an Indian writers (Abhay Mehta) thoughts on the place and what it meant and it was not pretty.
'“As an American citizen,” said Manning, “I felt personally responsible for what happened to the people of Fallujah. We live in a democracy. In our democracy, my government is conducting a military operation over there in my name. To me, it doesn’t get more direct than that."'
Taking responsibility for your actions or those carried out in your name and asking yourself whether you'd accept the fate to which you've consigned others... these are marks of the sort of wisdom and maturity you'd hope to find in a hyperpower. To be sure, Mr Manning's not alone in his integrity and courage, but wouldn't it be nice to encounter these qualities at the business end of American politics.
Agree with Philip, good to see you blogging Antony. Have you seen Gorilla in the Room yet... a blog you might find interesting.
Gorilla in the Room? Nope. What's the URL?
http://gorillaintheroom.blogspot.com/
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