Alex Jones' Terror Storm

I went to a docu screening in campus yesterday. The Film department shows "Films that matter" every Friday. They screened Terror Storm by the now infamous American journalist/filmmaker Alex Jones. Similar to Michael Moore, Jones connects the dots and shows some discrepancies regarding the the official story of the US government on 9/11. The 2hour 'conspiracy theory' basically claims that the tragedy that launched the global War on Terror was an inside job.

While this isn't news to me, what fascinated me more were the reactions of the kids who saw it. I saw three-four classmates from my IR classes, and the rest were journalism students I suppose. The general reaction seemed to be, it didn't matter whether the film's claims were true our not. The way Jones did his expose was very similar to Moore's - that is, while purporting to fight government propaganda, the film felt like a propaganda itself. Some said it didn't really matter whether the film's claims were true or not. Among the anti-Bush rhetoric, it was just background noise. I sat there with my mouth open, I couldn't believe what these kids were saying.

It might not matter to them whether the US government engineered 9/11. It might not matter to them whether the US has launched a billion-dollar campaign to sustain war in Iraq, its their taxes after all. It might not matter that the US certainly looks set to maintain bases in the Middle East. But it matters to Iraqis who've been on the verge of civil war the past three years. It matters because it can mean the difference between life and death. It matters because they have a government installed by the Bush regime. It matters because they have an occupying foreign power. And it matters to the whole world because skyrocketing oil prices know no boundaries.

Its frustrating how simplistic these UN do-gooder wannabes see the world. US politics doesn't halt at their borders. And they wonder why they're so unpopular in campus.