Voices of Iraq (the real people)

[Anniee]

www.voicesofiraq.com (6 Minute preview available.)

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/j...20041217.shtml

I realize one is supposed to make commentary on the pieces submitted, but these speak for themselves. I can not wait until this comes out on tape, or until I otherwise have a chance to see it all for myself. The preview shows how the minute the reporters (who stay comfortably in their hotels and VERY close to the troops, rather than among the actual, you know, people) leave the scene of a bombing/protest the "protestors" disperse and leave the scene. Camera whores, seems all staged. The real people tell quite a different story. Too bad no one asked them sooner. 150 video cameras given to ordinary Iraqis; people who want to go back to their homes in Fallujah (before it was taken over by Islamofascist terrorist), Kurdish people who used to burn themselves with cigarettes to prepare for the coming torture under Saddam, people who watched as a new rape victim was chosen each week in the marketplace, people who can't believe that they can now criticize whatever they want to...even their new government or the soldiers if they so please.

From the second piece:

<snip>Last spring, three enterprising Americans -- filmmakers Eric Manes and Martin Kunert, both former producers for MTV, and Gulf War veteran Archie Drury, a former Marine -- decided to find out. They distributed 150 digital video recorders to ordinary Iraqis and asked them to film anyone or anything they thought important -- and then pass the cameras on to someone else.

From April to September, the cameras circulated from hand to hand through every region of the country. What eventually came back to the three Americans was 450 hours of raw video recorded by more than 2,000 Iraqis from all walks of life -- and not one frame of it influenced by an outside director or crew. Edited down to a taut 80 minutes, the result -- "Voices of Iraq" -- is a gripping documentary that for the first time shows Iraq as even the most skillful American journalist will never be able to show it: through the eyes and ears of Iraq's people.

"Voices of Iraq" is by turns heartbreaking, exhilarating, and inspiring. The war and its destruction is never far from the surface. One of the opening scenes is of a car bombing in Sadr City, and when a little girl is asked by her off-camera interviewer, "What do you want to tell the world about Iraq?" she answers poignantly: "These explosions are hurting everyone." A mother weeps for her son, killed in the crossfire during a fight between US soldiers and looters. There is even footage -- supplied, Drury told NPR, by a sheik from Fallujah -- of insurgents preparing a bomb.

But bad as the war is, the horror it ended -- Saddam Hussein's 24-year reign -- was worse.

In the film, a young Kurdish mother tells her daughter, who is wielding the camcorder, how she would burn herself with cigarettes to prepare for the torture she knew was coming. A policeman recalls what it was like to arrest a member of the Ba'ath Party. "You'd be scared," he says. "You'd shake with fear." One man explains that Saddam's son Uday "used to come often to Ravad Street -- every Thursday for the market -- to choose a girl to rape." A few brief clips are shown from a captured Fedayeen Saddam videotape: A blindfolded man thrown to his death from a rooftop, a man's hand getting severed, someone's tongue being cut out. <snip>

<snip>Yet for all they have been through, Iraqis come across as incredibly optimistic, hopeful, and enthusiastic. Above all, perhaps, *normal.* In "Voices of Iraq" they film themselves flying on rides in an amusement park, dancing the night away at a graduation party, taking their kids to a playground, shopping for cell phones.>

<snip>Iraqis haven't had much experience with democracy, but we see the delight they take in the new opportunities Saddam's defeat is making possible. Two women celebrate the freedom to get a passport. An artist talks proudly about work for which he went to prison. A young woman says her dream is to be a lawyer. And one rough-looking fellow says simply, "I wish for a government elected by the Iraqi people."<snip>

[Osborn F Enready]

How many people are native to Iraq before the war?

What percentage are on this video?

Do you think it is fair to say that the people shown in those links represent all Iraqis?

I am just trying to clarify the message you are sending here Annie....could you do it for me?

[Scribbler1]

Looks interesting but I can only get the audio. I'm having a little trouble with WMP9 so it might be that. This is also lousing up my ability to make DVDs and I hope to get this fixed soon.

[Lou Minotti]

Fallujah (before it was taken over by Islamofascist terrorist

I wouldn't call the US military Islamists...

[Sonart]

A very touching post, Anniee. I'm all verklempt :rolleyes:

Unfortunately, this doesn't necessarily translate into support for U.S. policy.

USA TODAY, Mar. 2004."----"Only a third of the Iraqi people now believe that the American-led occupation of their country is doing more good than harm, and a solid majority support an immediate military pullout even though they fear that could put them in greater danger, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll."--

--"As many Iraqis say the war "humiliated" Iraq as say it "liberated" the country; more oppose than support the presence of coalition forces there now (although most also say they should stay for the time being); and relatively few express confidence in those forces, in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, or in the Iraqi Governing Council."--

WP, May, 2004 --"Four out of five Iraqis report holding a negative view of the U.S. occupation authority and of coalition forces, according to a new poll conducted for the occupation authority. In the poll, 80 percent of the Iraqis questioned reported a lack of confidence in the Coalition Provisional Authority, and 82 percent said they disapprove of the U.S. and allied militaries in Iraq."--

MSNBC, June 15 --"The first survey of Iraqis sponsored by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows that most say they would feel safer if Coalition forces left immediately, without even waiting for elections scheduled for next year. An overwhelming majority, about 80 percent, also say they have “no confidence” in either the U.S. civilian authorities or Coalition forces. Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed also said they believed violent attacks have increased around the country because “people have lost faith in the Coalition forces.”--

NPR --"A recent survey asked Iraqis a traditional polling question: Is the country moving in the right direction or on the wrong track? Forty-five percent said "wrong track," a jump of almost 15 percent since midsummer."--


.

[Lou Minotti]

I'm intrigued at your use of the term "Islamofascist terrorist". Do you listen to Savage or Hannity?

[PatrickHenry]

I am wondering what you wish to debate, Anniee. Or are you simply pasting an informative article? Do you agree with the assessment that a real liberation has occurred in Iraq?

Yes, it's a liberation. And the men and women we liberated, it turns out, are people just like us. The headlines dwell on the bad news, and the bad news is certainly real. But things are looking up in Iraq, as the Iraqis themselves will be happy to tell you. All someone had to do was ask.

[rcne]

I've not looked at the site Annie mentioned, but I have been visiting a site by the prodemiraq party. I also provides a view that I think is not presented by any of the news media in the western world.

These guys were so amazed when they actually registered their party and weren't assassinated. They have hope for a new Iraq, I wish them well.

This is in addition to remarks made by servicemen returning from Iraq claiming that none of the good news is getting any airplay in our western world..

I think the media no longer reports the news. They form an editorial opinion and pursue that line regardless of any facts that appear that opposes that opinion..

Recently more media opposing views are coming out of Iraq. Though good news doesn't sell so only the latest pictures of death and destruction will do.

[Nono]

This is in addition to remarks made by servicemen returning from Iraq claiming that none of the good news is getting any airplay in our western world..

I think the media no longer reports the news. They form an editorial opinion and pursue that line regardless of any facts that appear that opposes that opinion.

Recently more media opposing views are coming out of Iraq. Though good news doesn't sell so only the latest pictures of death and destruction will do.

This is the sort of stuff the hawks said during Vietnam, too, and we know where that one went.

I have precisely the opposite impression, rcne. Most of what I get from the US media is recognizably Party Line, with all the ra-ra Bushista terminology in place. The apparent hopelessness of the situation just doesn't penetrate. (That would be unpatriotic, wouldn't it?)

Here's a timely piece from the Toronto Star that takes up precisely this question:

"Freedom is on the march!" "We're making progress!" "The terrorists will do all they can to disrupt free elections in Iraq, and they will fail."

These are just some of the slogans that U.S. President George W. Bush now spouts, while the American cable channels duly carry his speeches live and the American print media give them front-page play.

Not that they aren't sneaking in a little bad news, mind you. But not much. This week, we learned, mostly via a text crawl at the bottom of the screen, that the milestone of 1,000 U.S. troops killed in combat had been reached.

If you blinked, you would have missed news of a Pentagon "strategic" report to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealing that U.S. actions "have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended."

There was a bit in some newspapers about a damning classified cable from the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Baghdad that painted a dismal picture of Iraq's economic, political and security prospects.

And, while it got notice when published in October, there's been no follow-up on a study in an esteemed British medical journal suggesting that up to 100,000 civilians had died since the invasion. No follow-up, that is, except to trash the research.

It figures that, on Tuesday in Camp Pendleton, California, all media eyes were on Bush giving a rousing crowd-pleaser, urging "every American to find some way to thank our military and to help out the military family down the street."

That while yesterday Rumsfeld was in Kuwait, dismissing concerns from troops about a lack of armour. "You go to war with the army you have," he said.

Want to guess whose comments got better play? (...)

Well, here's a positive piece of media news from Iraq: Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal reporter whose harrowing private e-mail to friends describing the hazards of Baghdad made international news, is back on the war beat after what many suspected was a month-long suspension. She returns despite vicious criticism from the right that she is too "biased" to work there — just because she felt it was a deadly situation.

But then, what would she know?

She's just there, in very real danger of getting killed. Stateside, she's threatened with being shot down, along with other reporters, just for telling the truth.

[Anniee]

I am wondering what you wish to debate, Anniee. Or are you simply pasting an informative article?

The second one. Of course if you are not interested in the topic or have nothing more than a one-line reply, you might just move on.

Rcne; I agree. Good post. I was very touched when the one man said that they can hardly believe it but now they are able to criticize the leadership...even the new president lol. He was still amazed by that, but very grateful too. They can now bitch and moan like the rest of us; and if I were them I'd have a lot of bitching and moaning to make up for. No wonder they're doing so!

[rcne]

nono, rather than the Toronto Star ( I love that city) why don't you look past the editorial opinion and search for stuff on the net directly from Iraq.

I discount all media, the right and the left, they all have a base that they need to sell papers to.

Believe it or not there are sites popping up on the net that present a view from Iraq.

[bullshitdetector]

That is good news Anniee, don't let dissenting minds discourage those who know there is good coming from the war and that the troops are doing a fine job! As much as this doesn't represent all Iraqis, anti american propaganda doesn't either.