Review of Dirty Wars (2013) by Henry F — 09 Jan 2014

In DIRTY WARS, journalist Jeremy Scahill sheds light on the dark operations of an American military organization with seeming impunity to enter any country and kill any person in the name of anti-terrorism.

The result is a hit-list numbering in the thousands and the death of many innocents, along with real rising hatred against the U.S. one Afghan elder calls the group the American Taliban. The organization in question, JSOC, is described by one of the documentary interviewees as an enormous hammer constantly in search of a nail to pound, leading to an endless ambiguous war on terror, which JSOC seems to find everywhere.

The film is very effective, and emotionally involving. It meanders a little, possibly because it is not trying to discover one fact or prove one case, but instead provide a broad picture that honors the victims of JSOC and lets Americans know what is being done in our name.

And it is not pretty.