The Reality Behind NATO Operations, Essay Example

In “Dirty Wars” a war reporter, Jeremy Scahill investigates what goes on behind the front line in Afghanistan, and what lies beyond the NATO and U.S. military reports. In the documentary, the author shows that the reports often fail to mention civilian victims of the conflict, and it is not clear for local authorities, or people, even military personnel what the mission is. The main message of the interviews featured in the documentary with local people is that they only turn against Americans because their loved ones (innocent civilians) are repeatedly being killed, without explanation. Their lives are ruined by the presence of the NATO forces in the region.

The journalist compares what he sees in the war zone and what the NATO reports say. When he is told by local people that American soldiers killed their family members, the NATO report states that the people were victims of Taliban honor killing.

Schahill brings the case in front of the U.S. Senate hoping that it would be investigated. He speaks in front of the Committee, but Washington politicians are not interested in the case at all. He is not surprised, as back in 2007, when he investigated the Blackwater case in Iraq, he was not listened to, either. Instead, he went on a talk show, and the case got a publicity in the mainstream media this way. He asks for more details based on his rights: freedom for information, but he does not get approval. His request ends up in a pile that is “awaiting review”.

One of the most shocking parts of the documentary is when the reporter talks with Hugh Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 9/11. The general simply says that those people were at the wrong place at the wrong time, and their lives simply have to be “written off” as loss. He talks about people as if they were robots, and is emotionless, in-compassionate, and arrogant.

Another unethical method that the government and NATO use in order to cover up the case is that they try to discredit the journalist who first published the story of Gardez: Jerome Starkey from the Times of London. The government and NATO does not succeed, however, and information surfaces that backs up the story of the journalist. Finally, NATO admits that they were responsible for killing the civilians. He finally finds out that the special unit that killed the family was a high security military group, reporting directly to the White House. From this point, the story of Gardez becomes even more compelling.

Revealing J-Soc, the secret military unit that hides in the shadows and determines the course of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Yemen, a country that is not in war with America is a discovery that highlights the fact that most of the story about wars, motivations, operations, and the cost of activities is hidden from the public. While the NATO and the U.S. military claim that sharing details about strategies and operations would endanger the lives of soldiers, a citizen of the United States or any of the NATO  countries would be right to ask: is it worth it?  Has the military achieved anything worth to mention? Are Americans and NATO forces closer to eliminating the threat of Taliban?   And are the results worth killing thousands of innocent civilians, while making residents of the countries become enemies of the United States and call American soldiers  “American Taliban”? The documentary asks the  above questions, however, without sufficient information disclosed by the governments taking part in the operation, answering them seems impossible. Facts are covered up, and the December 17 attack in Yemen is said to be initiated by the government, targeting an Al Qaeda base in the country. Even the report on Al Jazeera did not mention America’s involvement. In reality, the eyewitnesses tell Scahill that they did not find any Al Quaeda leaders when they went to the scene of the explosion, only women and children. One of the poorest tribes of Yemen was attacked by U.S. military, and there is no explanation. All that the reporter faces when he asks questions is denial, refusal of information requests, and threats from the military leadership. Nonetheless, he goes ahead with the story and talks to the television about the events, and how the government was trying to cover up the events. He finally meets an operative who tells him that J-Soc is simply allowed to do anything to meet national security targets of the government.

As the journalist in the documentary states: “The War on Terror transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy”. The question is: does the American Nation, government, and the NATO have a right to declare that their security has a higher hierarchy than civilians’ who live in the countries where the Taliban operates? Is the cost in human lives rectifiable? And does democracy mean that governments do not need to account for their actions, just because they state that they act in their citizens’ best interest? While the documentary mainly questions government responsibility, several human rights, ethical,  and international relations issues can be examined after watching the movie. Do government secrets really protect the lives of military personnel, or are they simply there to avoid responsibility? In 2013, the Army Regulation 380-10  was created that foreign governments have the rights for information about U.S. military actions in their country. It seems like the mission of the investigative journalist has been completed, and transparency has increased in the American government. In 2013, the Tshwane Principles on National Security and the Right to Information were created in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Innovative. Meanwhile, Jeremy Schahill writes for Huffington Post (Huffington Post), and writes about how the U.S. administration selects individuals to be included in a “terrorist watchlist”.

Works Cited

Minkovski, A. New Details In U.S. Terrorism Watchlist Expansion. Huffington Post Live. 2014. Web. http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/obama-administration-terrorism-watchlist-intercept/53cfe9b9fe3444e6bf0000f8

Open Society Foundations. New Principles Address the Balance between National Security and the Public’s Right to Know. 2013. Web. http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/press-releases/new-principles-address-balance-between-national-security-and-publics-right-know

Rowley, K. (dir.) Dirty Wars. Netflix. 2013.  Web.

U.S. Department of the Army. Army Regulation 380–10 2013. Web. http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r380_10.pdf