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    'Bitter Lake' (Documentary 2015)

    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    'Bitter Lake'  (Documentary 2015) Empty 'Bitter Lake' (Documentary 2015)

    Post by Kitkat Tue 29 Sep 2015, 22:37

    Published on 22 Sep 2015

    Politicians used to have the confidence to tell us stories that made sense of the chaos of world events. But now there are no big stories and politicians react randomly to every new crisis - leaving us bewildered and disorientated. Bitter Lake is a new, adventurous and epic film by Adam Curtis that explains why the big stories that politicians tell us have become so simplified that we can't really see the world any longer. The narrative goes all over the world, America, Britain, Russia and Saudi Arabia - but the country at the heart of it is Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan is the place that has confronted our politicians with the terrible truth - that they cannot understand what is going on any longer. The film reveals the forces that over the past thirty years rose up and undermined the confidence of politics to understand the world. And it shows the strange, dark role that Saudi Arabia has played in this. But Bitter Lake is also experimental. Curtis has taken the unedited rushes of everything that the BBC has ever shot in Afghanistan - and used them in new and radical ways. He has tried to build a different and more emotional way of depicting what really happened in Afghanistan. A counterpoint to the thin, narrow and increasingly destructive stories told by those in power today.



    Alternative link (link above has been snatched back, so watch below on YouTube instead): 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbq63r7rys&feature=player_embedded
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    'Bitter Lake'  (Documentary 2015) Empty Re: 'Bitter Lake' (Documentary 2015)

    Post by Kitkat Thu 01 Oct 2015, 00:04

    Anyone who has watched the documentary, the subject of this thread, will not be that surprised to read the following headline in today's BBC News:

    Russian air strikes 'not hitting IS'

    The US and Nato expressed concern that the first Russian air strikes in Syria have not targeted the Islamic State group, their stated aim.

    'Bitter Lake'  (Documentary 2015) Readmorebutton  arrow   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34408120
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    'Bitter Lake'  (Documentary 2015) Empty Re: 'Bitter Lake' (Documentary 2015)

    Post by Kitkat Thu 01 Oct 2015, 12:33

    How Putin blindsided the US over Syria
    30 September 2015


    There should be no surprises about what the Russians have done.

    They have consistently made clear their support for President Assad. It was hardly a great secret that they had moved military assets into Syria - and the Russian pilots hadn't flown their fighter aircraft over to the Eastern Mediterranean to earn some extra air miles.

    President Vladimir Putin had a meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday night to explain what Russia's plan was - and although there were profound differences, US officials said they understood better what Russia's intentions were.

    And yet.

    Isn't there something totally jaw-dropping, gob-smacking, eyebrow-arching, ear twitchingly extraordinary - and not to mention, casual - about the way the Americans learnt about Russian plans?

    It began with a phone call from a Russian diplomat to his counterpart in Baghdad to say "we've got something interesting to tell you".

    Then a three-star Russian general leaves the Russian embassy compound and knocks on the door of the American one, and asks to see the US military attache.

    He tells the American military man that bombing starts in an hour, so you'd better get out of Syrian airspace now and move any assets you have off the ground. And 60 minutes later, the bombing started.

    Wow. To say the Americans were blindsided by this unorthodox line of communication is to put it mildly. Having had their "clear the air" meeting on Monday night there was an anticipation that though there might be big policy differences, there would be a degree of co-ordination and openness.

    Just consider this - the risks of a US fighter plane running into a Russian one with unimaginable consequences has just ratcheted up. Are they going to take it on turns to bomb targets? One day it's the Americans and their allies, the next day it's the Russians. You don't need to be a military historian to know that that is not going to fly (so to speak).

    And that is before we get to the strategic objectives.

    Are the Russians trying to destroy IS/Isis/Isil/Daesh or are they trying to prop up President Assad?
     

    'Bitter Lake'  (Documentary 2015) Readmorebutton  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34405983

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