Beginning with the Vietnam War and culminating with the present conflict in Iraq, the wonders of technology have turned overseas conflicts into media extravaganzas complete with “embedded” reporters, live footage of exploding missiles, and interviews with “experts” in whatever the hot topic of the day is. With this constant bombardment of information, however, has also come an increased awareness of the need for critical analysis of that information and its sources.
This kind of questioning is just what U of T-based Science for Peace hoped to encourage with their screening of two documentaries at University College on March 27 to a small audience of students and non-students.
President Paul Hamel, a U of T biology professor, urged the audience to recognize their own role in the current conflict in Iraq. “It’s not just an attack on the people of Iraq…but on people everywhere,” he told the audience. “This is a serious war on civil society.”
The first documentary, “Iraq Then and Now: The Unheard Voices of Iraqi Women,” was produced by Amira Elias, an Iraqi-Canadian who returned home to visit her family five years after the first Gulf War.
Filled with distressing images of skeletal children in hospitals, bombed-out buildings, and weeping mothers, the film also demonstrated the spirit of the Iraqi people as they carry on in the face of so much loss and destruction.
“Hidden Wars of Desert Storm” explored the role of the U.S. in the 1990 war, as well the post-war Oil for Food program and its effects on Iraqi society.
The film delves into the American foreign policy of that era and questions some of the commonly accepted notions many in the general public hold about that war. Perhaps most disturbing was the similarity of the political rhetoric of that time to today’s.
Hamel said he wants Canadians to inform themselves about the Iraq war, make their own decisions and then make their voices heard.
