We Are Many: a unique documentary about the Iraq war worldwide protests

Yesterday I went to watch the only screening in Montreal of the documentary about the worldwide protests against the Iraq war on February 15, 2003. The documentary is directed by Amir Amirani.  The main producers are Wael Kabbani & Omid Djalili.

I still don't understand why the producers chose to screen their documentary at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival, because one of the producers, Omid Djalili, is a comedian? It hurts the documentary more than anything else.

I have to admit I was looking forward and waiting to see this movie and think it is a necessary movie.

The documentary lasts one hour and 50 minutes.  It starts with 911 and ends in 2013 with the vote in the UK not to authorize war on Syria. It is well documented and edited.  It describes well the run up to the Iraq war and the social forces that brought us the protests on this unique day of Februray, 15, 2003.

The director and producer had access to the main protagonists in the anti-war movement and to many prominent experts and politicians who voiced their opposition to the war, some before, others, after the war. It has footage of parliamentary sessions about the Iraq war in the UK.

For someone who went to the protests, recalling this moment through the doucmentary can be quite emotional as the documentary succeeds in recreating the context.

The documentary is flawless as long as it stays within the main subject, but it does not stay within the limits of its main subject, and this is an error in my opinion because it misses on some aspects of the Iraq war and the anti-war movement that were not adressed.

The documentary does not adress the failure of the anti-war movement to act on the Libya invasion in particular and the failure of their movement in general.  It does not even mention Libya.

The documentary does not address Israel’s and the Neocons’ role in the push for the war on Iraq.  It even manages to show an Israeli flag in an anti-war protest at the end when Israel’s anti Iraq war protests were marginal.  Israel and its role in this war are totally absent from the movie.

The documentary rightly attributes the vote in UK not to go to war on Syria in 2013 as being a consequence of the changing public mood after the Iraq war. Although this is partial since it is Libya and its Islamist winter that were on the minds during this vote.

The documentary branches to the Arab Spring and the protests in Egypt and tries to establish a link between the Iraq war protests and the 2011 protests in Egypt.  This attempt is unconvincing and part of many attempts to own the Arab Spring. 

Highlights:

Footage of the protests on February 15, 2003.  Although they were insufficient in my opinion.

The resignation of Robin Cook in the house of parliament before the Iraq war vote.

John Le Carre saying about the Iraq war : This is a crime of a century

Bush jocking about Iraq’s WMD at the 2004 Correspondants' dinner association with the press hilarious is a sordid reminder of the complicity of the press in the Iraq war crime.

I recommend this documentary and hope it will gain a larger audience. 

US Policy New 'Turn' in the ME: 'Iraqi Bloodshed Is Not Our Responsibility'

What did I tell you before ? When I heard of an invitation made to Syria and Iran to join talks on security for Iraq's neighbours in Baghdad, I didn't think, like most professional western analysts, that this was a turn in the Bush's adminstration policy in the ME. I immediately thought that this was the Bush adminstration's way to pin the blame of the bloodshed in Iraq on Syria and Iran !

Zionists and Neocons alike have been promoting the idea of a bloodshed between Sunnis and Shias as the main obstacle to peace and stabilisation in Iraq. Forgotten are the first gulf war, the embargos on Iraqi populations, the 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq and the destruction of a whole country and society, the looting of Iraq's oil resources and cultural heritage, and the presence of 150000 active US soldiers making sure Iraqi puppet politicians are doing what the US asks them to do. Now we are invited to believe that the problem of Iraq is between the hands of Sunnis and shias in Iraq and the rest of the ME. From now on, the nightmare in the ME is not the US and Israel's faults, it is the fault of Muslims fighting each other and Palestinian factions fighting each other. Some Arab fools are buying into this narrative, king Abdullah of Jordan for example. Speaking of, why Jordan is not named as responsible for Iraq's security ? That's a question the Bush adminstration would have to answer and that no journalist will ask.

Today, at the opening of the talks, US puppet Iraqi prime minister Nouri El Maliki is reproted to have ''issued a stern warning that unless Iraq's neighbours - including Iran and Syria - united to help to shut down networks supplying both Sunni and Shia extremists, Iraq's escalating sectarian bloodshed would inevitably engulf the Middle East.''

And to realise that this conference on the stabilisation of iraq is a farce one must listen to puppet Maliki asking neighboring countries to stop their interference in Iraq while he seems to be confortable with 150000 USW soldiers in his country and a US adminstration dictating Iraqi policies.

Bagdad demande l'arrêt des ingérences étrangères
LEMONDE.FR 10.03.07

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Well, the US wages illegal wars in the world and asks others to take responsibility for the post-war stabilisation. As in Afghanistan where an alliance, once powerful, is battling a guerrilla made of few radicals and fundamentalists.

Nobody should follow the US on this path. Reason must prevail and countries around the world should boycott the Bush adminstration or any adminstration who conducts such a failing and irrational policy. This nonsense must stop ! We shoudl ask our governments not only to stop supporting this policy but to fight it tirelessely to curb the actual terrible state of the world !

Angry Arab's first comment on the conference of Iraqi neighbours.
Angry Arab's second comment on the conference of Iraqi neighbours.

Anti Iraq War Protest Pictures

The protest was held today in washington DC. Tens of thousands attended. The call for the protest was launched by United for peace and Justice.

Sources: Backbone Le Monde

P.S. To the zionist from Israel who left a comment on my previous post I tell him: Israel is responsible for this war also. How does this fit into his narrative about Muslims who hate the US and Israel as the only friend of the US ?