Review of Dirty Wars (2013) by Kj P — 25 Feb 2014

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is a ballsy guy. Unsatisfied with following U.S. troops in Afghanistan through official means, he ventures into Taliban controlled areas and begins learning of botched, covered up, missions that caused the deaths of civilian Afghan families. Over the course of the next 90 minutes, his search goes wider, as he explores Obama's policy of engaging in covert military actions in areas outside declared war zones, such as Yemen, supporting the imprisonment of journalists, hiring Somali warlords, and assassinating American citizens in exile, notably Anwar al-Awlaki and his sixteen year old son.

The film's narrative follows Scahill around the world as a discovery generates curiosity, which generates more investigations and more discovery. However, there is no strong narrative to the nature of what is being uncovered. Unlike "All The President's Men", where vague discoveries get hunted and narrowed down, we just get a smattering of information - much of which we know. The main thesis here, broadly implied, is that the administrations counter-terrorism activities have been mostly effective in breeding new terrorists. Anwar al-Awlaki began as a moderate who radicalized during the Iraq War. By the time he was assassinated in Yemen, the administration saw fit to follow up his killing with that of his sixteen year old son - an apparent Mafia-like effort to prevent the next generation of terrorist from seeking revenge.