Two Words, One Answer.
forceful
 Meeting Resistance $24.95 I rewrote my review, because the first version was notes I just took while watching this movie. Here are some of my thoughts on this movie: - Islam to me seems like a world out of the 7th century, as portrayed in this documentary. The notion of dying for God by killing enemies is something we in the West have not seen since 1648. The notion of fighting for the land because an "infidel" has "defiled" it, is quite an archaic notion, and one that we don't understand fully in the West. And yet, this is what, based on this documentary, motivates the average Iraqi "resistance" fighter (I prefer the term "religious terrorist"). We keep hearing in the West and in our media that "Islam is a religion of peace". And yet, when you let the cameras roll and just interview Muslims, you get a very different picture of a religion positively that loves warfare and killing. We constantly see and hear Islam conflated with this "fight" against the Americans. So Islam really is not a religion of peace, at least based on what the people in this documentary actually say. Indeed, this documentary propagates the myth that "resistance" is created by American "imperialism", or at least, by the occupation of a country like Iraq. The Western mind (and particularly the secular "progressive" mind has a very hard time grasping the fact that for instance, Sunnis are motived by a 500-year old grudge against the Shiites. They really don't believe this, so they interpret the violence as being about Israel and the U.S. The fact is that conflict has been going on INSIDE Islam for about 1300 years, and won't stop soon. For instance, Saladin, the legendary Muslim hero, fought more against fellow Muslims, than he did against western crusaders. His battle was to purge Sunni Islam of "impure" elements. That has been taken up today by the Saudi Wahhabists (since 1750 A.D.). The Left will tell you that Muslim violence is just a reaction to "Western aggression" (the U.S., UK, and Israel). But the conflict is much deeper than that. - No attempt is made to provide a broader context. The movie for instance shows the U.S. military destroying a mosque, but there is no context provided. Were the "resistance" fighters (read: terrorists) firing from the mosque (very, very probable, unless one wants to think that the U.S. Army just goes around blowing up mosques. Constantly in this movie, we see "combat" scenes without context. Dead kids, but who killed them ? The implication is that there would be no combat if the U.S. Army were not there... ... and yet, 80 % of the combat was between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. The documentary misses this point massively. Most of the combat and bombings has been to "settle scores" between Shiite militias and Sunni terrorists. The Iraq "resistance" really is not so much about the U.S. occupation as it is about a centuries-old civil war within Islam between the Sunnis and the Shias, and the documentary really misses this point, big-time. The U.S. Army of course got in the way of that civil war, but it has been raging for centuries. - Also, after 2004, 90 % of the "resistance" has consisted of young men from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, brainwashed by Wahhabist fanaticism. The film misses the point that the terrorists in Iraq mostly are young men who have been brainwashed by Wahhabist imams in Yemen and Saudi Arabia and who then venture to Iraq. They thus are motivated by a very fanatical, hate-filled version of Islam that I think is not very widely shared in the Middle East. BTW, I recently saw a talk by one of the U.S. experts on the Kurds. She not only travelled - as a Jewish American woman - but was widely welcomed by almost all Kurds, even though they knew she was Jewish (Kurds love the Jews and Israel, because like Israel, the Kurds see themselves as "surrounded by Arabs"). If the terror were solely or mostly about the U.S. occupation of a Muslim homeland, then why are the Muslim Kurds not fighting us ? Could it be that it is not really about that at all, and really is a Sunni-Shiite Civil War that has been going on for about 700 years ?  Art Reproduction Oil Painting - Seascapes: Forceful Winds - Classic 20" X 24" - Hand Painted Canvas Art $89.00 20" X 24" Oil Painting On Canvas This is a remarkable oil painting with exceptional use of color, detail and brush strokes. Forceful Winds exhibits the allurement, charm and elegance of the oceanic presence. Crashing waves, gentle rocks and blue skies are just a few of the many details this painting has to offer. A delightful setting that is sure to bring many admirers.  Redken Forceful 23 Super Strength Finishing Spray, Maximum Control 11 oz (312 g) $15.00 Although my hair is wavy, it's lightweight and on the thin side. I've tried many different hairsprays, and this is the only one I've found that helps keep my hair in place without weighing it down or making it too stiff. It doesn't have a "flowery" smell either...just does its job. |
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