No wonder the U.S. government isn’t afraid of shrinking the U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The real heavy lifters are JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, whose most prestigious arm is Seal Team Six. Through nearly extinct investigative journalism, reporter/producer Jeremy Scahill uncovers the unfortunate reality of our global operations against terrorism that simply isn’t covered by mainstream media. Many of us in the U.S. bury our heads in the sand when it comes to reports that sound like conspiracy theorists gone wild. But the dirty secret in Dirty Wars that Scahill actually utilizes much of what we publish openly to uncover the truth of our war on terror.
There’s little to doubt in this documentary that details Scahill’s mysterious fact-finding mission, one that starts in a small province outside of the green zone in Afghanistan. While there he heard rumors of U.S. military personnel that sported beards and muscles, not our standard ground troops in the clean shaven military. The victims even claimed they were akin to the American version of the Taliban in how quickly they came and went. Scahill wouldn’t let that discovery rest, as he uncovers that nearly 20 raids on Middle Eastern villages occur each and every day. For a military trying to win hearts and minds according to mainstream media, these brutal and often unceremonious attacks that often left innocent people dead was not helping matters.
Yet, it wasn’t being reported on. Why not? That branch of the military at the time was a little-known secret and had remained mostly hidden from the public eye. As Scahill and his crew dig deeper, they find increasingly more disturbing evidence of misdeeds. In our fight against terrorism, have we taken things too far? Scahill doesn’t necessarily make judgments, but instead reports on them with a distanced hand, letting us decide. However, the takeaway is obvious. What was once a focused attack on an ideal has become a full-fledged global war in countries we don’t have jurisdiction to be in.
As much as our military is celebrated, it’s unsettling to see how few people know how far-reaching and dangerous we are and continue to be. Even more unsettling is how many reports and figures come directly from press releases and information provided by our own government. As for the production, there’s a curious and almost noble lack of tension. The heart and soul of the doc is in the story it details, not creating fake drama and excitement. Yet, you do get the sense that Scahill and his crew were in real danger at times. They’re often in the middle of places that Americans are not welcomed with open arms and as soon as he found his narrative treasure hunt, he left the aid of the U.S. military behind. Embedded journalists have a limited view of what actually happens — partly for safety, and partly because it is easier to contain a journalist under tightly controlled circumstances. We are in a global war with terror, and Dirty Wars exposes just how dirty we’ve gotten to achieve our goals in often unsettling ways.
Dirty Wars screened at Dallas International Film Festival. Check out a newly released trailer below ahead of its June 7th release: