Barbelith Underground > Switchboard

Oh god. Watching this film because you have insomnia and there's nothing else to do was probably a bad idea. It's a tad depressing/infuriating.

It's a fucking excellent documentary though. There's an excellent moment where Lt. Rushing is responding to Al Jazeera's broadcast of the American POW's and casualties early in the war. Lt. Rushing said he found the images of dead and captured GI's "revolting". Then he said that just the previous night he had seen similarly atrocious images of severely wounded Iraqi's and it he hadn't felt the revulsion so strongly (I'm paraphrasing) but seeing those pictures of wounded and captured Americans he suddenly knew how the Iraqi's must be feeling.

It's an interesting documentary to watch now because it covers the beginning of the war and everyone's speculations. One heartbreaking moment early in the film has the nicest newsman (Hassan Ibrahim) from Al Jazeera asserting that he believes the American people will not let the bloodshed continue...

I love Samir Khader- here's a link to a picture of him. He's the cynical chain-smoking Al Jazeera producer. He perfectly fit my image of a journalist.

Be warned- this documentary is very gruesome and upsetting. Don't watch if you feel fragile. Do watch it when you feel better though.

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