Still Waiting for the Real Documentary on Terrorism

I’ve become quite fond of watching documentaries, and one I’ve been tempted to see is Errol Morris’ Standard Operating Procedure. It examines the alleged incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison in Guantanamo Bay. Morris is a fantastic documentarian and this film is being hailed as one of his best, both provocative and disturbing.

It follows in a long line of documentaries concerning the war in Iraq. Michael Moore’s Academy Award winning Fahrenheit 9/11, Body of War, Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror, Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre, No End in Sight, and last year’s Academy Award winning Taxi to the Dark Side, which, like SOP, focuses on the military’s “possible” use of torture.

It doesn’t take much to see that these documentaries have more in common than just the war in Iraq and Afghanistan — they are all antagonistic toward the war effort, and critical of United States policy and practice. To put it bluntly: All these war documentaries seem to have the same agenda.

Which is one of the reasons I’m reluctant to watch the Abu Ghraib documentary. Actually, it’s the same reason I haven’t seen any of the above mentioned documentaries. Call me close-minded, obstinate, discrimantory. But in a country that stresses diversity, differences of opinion, I just don’t understand why we can’t get both sides of the issue concerning the War on Terrorism.

Perhaps I’m part of a dying breed, but the 9/11 attacks rocked my world. Many of those images scarred my emotional retina. I will never forget the horror of seeing innocent civilians clinging to the windows of the World Trade Center, preparing to plummet to their deaths. Hearing the heartbreaking phone calls from United 93 as those brave civilians prepared to storm their hijackers. And I remember Nick Burg screaming in agony as his head was sawed off by fanatical Muslims. Unlike the cliched placards that displayed, oh so briefly, our resolve to remember that terrible day, I WILL NEVER FORGET.

The problem is, the American media has. Videos and pictures of terrorism’s after-effects are consigned to internet echo chambers, stamped with cautionary notices, and stripped of their visceral impact. The victims of 9/11 are memorialized, but never seen. The tactics of Islamic extremists are left undenounced while we conjure socio-political theories about their angst. Terrorism has become a blurb on the news, its victims simply names on an ethereal roll call…

…while documentaries about U.S. atrocities and torture roll out and receive Academy Awards.

This makes me very angry.

I’m still waiting for the day that Michael Moore trains his lenses upon the mangled victims of a suicide bombing, innocents who been horribly disfigured or dismembered, families that have, literally, been torn apart, by terrorists. I’m still waiting for Errol Morris to document the splattered remains of Americans who plumetted to their deaths, stewardesses whose throats were splayed by box cutters, and firemen who were vaporized under thousands of tons of concrete. I’m still waiting for the real documentary on terrorism.

But sadly, our documentarians are too busy criticizing America.

I believe what John McCain, a victim of torture, said — that by employing torture tactics we become no better than our enemies. Am I suggesting that terrorism justifies the use of torture? No. I am suggesting that a lop-sided view of the issue tweaks our opinion. But until Americans demand both sides of the story, lop-sided is what we’ll get.