Question War: If you don't, who will?

For those who weren’t able to hear Iraqi women’s rights advocate Yanar Mohammed speak last Saturday, you have another chance. Ellen Neal interviewed Ms. Mohammed for the KACV-TV program Face To Face. The interview will first air on Tuesday, April 26, at 7:30 pm, then will repeat Saturday, April 30 at 5:00 pm, and Sunday, May 1 at 12:30 pm.

The AGN covered Ms. Mohammed’s visit also with a reporter and photographer and published this well-written article on April 10. Unfortunately, the pseudo-science of the anti-evolution guy that appeared on the same page was given twice as much ink. You wanna say 'go figure', but then you remember where you are.

In the KACV interview, Ms. Mohammed emphasized that the shape of government and society in Iraq must be democratic, secular, and egalitarian. She identified three dark forces in the country; the American occupation, political Islam, and ethnic nationalism. The American invasion promised liberation, but unleashed chaos. Part of that chaos was the rise of Islamist fundamentalism into politics and attempts to impose religious law on civil society. She calls these the two poles of terrorism – US state terrorism and political Islam. She and her compatriots have admirable goals, but they are treading a dangerous path between two violent forces.

We in America must not be casual observers. We bear responsibility for what has happened to Iraq. It comes down to this unpleasant truth: We didn’t do enough to stop an illegal, immoral, and unjustifiable war. We’ve got a lot of work to do and a ways to go before we reach the tipping point that finally discredits this war and the ones who wage it.

One way to move toward that end is to offer and keep in front of our community a reality that most of them aren’t exposed to. The Question War Film Series screens documentaries and movies that, well, question war, and offer alternatives to the business-as-usual propaganda that confronts us in mainstream media. This Sunday, April 17, Weapons Of Mass Deception by Danny Schecter, founder and executive editor of mediachannel.org, documents the media's biased coverage of the Iraq War.

Join us Sunday at the downtown library, second floor, at 2 pm. It’s free. And it makes a difference.