Search - Meeting Resistance on DVD

Telling the Truth

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 05/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Meeting Resistance"

Telling the Truth

Amos Lassen

On the cover of "Meeting Resistance" (First Run Features) is the question, "What would you do if America was invaded". I doubt if we have given much thought to an answer, either as a nation or as individuals since we do not think we will ever have such a situation. But this has happened in Iraq and the film is an astonishing documentary about the Iraqi war. We get to see what is behind the Iraqi insurgence by meeting those who are involved with the struggle against coalition forces. We also hear from the Iraqi citizens themselves how they feel about the occupation of their country and their homeland.
The film goes after the myths about the war and of those who participate in it. Men and women are candidly open about their hopes and aspirations and we see differing human perspectives and we learn about the heavy toll of the occupation of Iraq.
150,000 foreign troops occupy Iraq now. They have looted and killed countrymen and they will not leave. Watching this film gives a new meaning to the words "war" and "occupation". Iraqis have been forced into making horrible choices--should they leave the country if they can or should they stay and watch their relatives be killed? We also learn that America is not in Iraq because of Al Qaeda. We are there because of the amount of oil that is there and gaining an entrance to the Persian Gulf so that our availability to that oil will not be cut off. The war that we have led to believe is being fought to protect the world against terrorism is not that all and this film will open your eyes to just that.
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Educator's Delight

kennykentucky | Louisville, KY USA | 07/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You want something to challenge and jolt your students concerning the Iraq War? This intriguing film provides gritty fodder that will make every American ask questions about our continued presence in Iraq, our military and non-military strategies and the nature of an urban war.
What I like best is that the film tells its story mostly through interviews with Iraqis from all strata of society, most of whom are "insurgents". So when you hear a teacher, housewife or kid talk about their reasons for fighting, it strikes home more than listening to a politician or a general. It occurred to me that you could apply these commoners' words to about any war in a country that was occupied by an outside force. So I can imagine some citizens of ancient Syria talking about their Roman rulers and why they wish they would leave.
I found it fairly non-judgemental which makes it a good fit for a high school or college classroom (maybe some middle school level). Of course, whenever you point a camera and edit, you are deciding what the viewer sees. And what the viewer sees is riveting.
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Religion of peace, or of war ?

John | 10/16/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I rewrote my review, because the first version was notes I just took while watching this movie.

Here are some of my thoughts on this movie:

- Islam to me seems like a world out of the 7th century, as portrayed in this documentary. The notion of dying for God by killing enemies is something we in the West have not seen since 1648. The notion of fighting for the land because an "infidel" has "defiled" it, is quite an archaic notion, and one that we don't understand fully in the West. And yet, this is what, based on this documentary, motivates the average Iraqi "resistance" fighter (I prefer the term "religious terrorist"). We keep hearing in the West and in our media that "Islam is a religion of peace". And yet, when you let the cameras roll and just interview Muslims, you get a very different picture of a religion positively that loves warfare and killing. We constantly see and hear Islam conflated with this "fight" against the Americans. So Islam really is not a religion of peace, at least based on what the people in this documentary actually say.

Indeed, this documentary propagates the myth that "resistance" is created by American "imperialism", or at least, by the occupation of a country like Iraq. The Western mind (and particularly the secular "progressive" mind has a very hard time grasping the fact that for instance, Sunnis are motived by a 500-year old grudge against the Shiites. They really don't believe this, so they interpret the violence as being about Israel and the U.S. The fact is that conflict has been going on INSIDE Islam for about 1300 years, and won't stop soon. For instance, Saladin, the legendary Muslim hero, fought more against fellow Muslims, than he did against western crusaders. His battle was to purge Sunni Islam of "impure" elements. That has been taken up today by the Saudi Wahhabists (since 1750 A.D.). The Left will tell you that Muslim violence is just a reaction to "Western aggression" (the U.S., UK, and Israel). But the conflict is much deeper than that.

- No attempt is made to provide a broader context. The movie for instance shows the U.S. military destroying a mosque, but there is no context provided. Were the "resistance" fighters (read: terrorists) firing from the mosque (very, very probable, unless one wants to think that the U.S. Army just goes around blowing up mosques. Constantly in this movie, we see "combat" scenes without context. Dead kids, but who killed them ? The implication is that there would be no combat if the U.S. Army were not there...

... and yet, 80 % of the combat was between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. The documentary misses this point massively. Most of the combat and bombings has been to "settle scores" between Shiite militias and Sunni terrorists. The Iraq "resistance" really is not so much about the U.S. occupation as it is about a centuries-old civil war within Islam between the Sunnis and the Shias, and the documentary really misses this point, big-time. The U.S. Army of course got in the way of that civil war, but it has been raging for centuries.

- Also, after 2004, 90 % of the "resistance" has consisted of young men from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, brainwashed by Wahhabist fanaticism. The film misses the point that the terrorists in Iraq mostly are young men who have been brainwashed by Wahhabist imams in Yemen and Saudi Arabia and who then venture to Iraq. They thus are motivated by a very fanatical, hate-filled version of Islam that I think is not very widely shared in the Middle East.

BTW, I recently saw a talk by one of the U.S. experts on the Kurds. She not only travelled - as a Jewish American woman - but was widely welcomed by almost all Kurds, even though they knew she was Jewish (Kurds love the Jews and Israel, because like Israel, the Kurds see themselves as "surrounded by Arabs"). If the terror were solely or mostly about the U.S. occupation of a Muslim homeland, then why are the Muslim Kurds not fighting us ? Could it be that it is not really about that at all, and really is a Sunni-Shiite Civil War that has been going on for about 700 years ?"

Iraqi Men/Women Asking "What Would YOU DO if We Invaded You?

Woodlandtrails | 06/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These Iraqi men and woman ask "what would Americans do if an Iraqi Army rolled down their streets and stayed under the guise of protecting Americans from themselves?" Answer: Americans would fight the Iraqi just as Iraqis are fighting Americans. An occupying force is just that.

This film says 85% are fighting because of religion-Islamic religion and not from any government party affiliation. Americans are infidels-dirty/unclean occupying their lands. Yet, Americans are told we are in Iraq and now Afghanistan spreading "democracy". The whole Middle East is run as theocracies and dictatorships - NOT DEMOCRACIES whether Americans are there or not. Women and children are treated like dirt whether we are there are not. You are right. It is NOT our job to bring you a "democracy" as Muslims want to be under Sharia law.

These filmed people claim Americans and Israel are blowing up buildings and Muslim people and it is not Muslim people blowing them up. Yet this film shows Muslims blowing up Americans and Muslims who cooperate with Americans. They admit on film to warning children and people to stay away from tanks and Americans as they are potential targets. They admit to detonating bombs by remote control killing Americans rolling by and any innocent bystanders nearby. The women admit to hiding/transporting weapons within the folds of their abayas. Yet these filmed Iraqis claim to strike/kill and immediately run get angry at the attacked American soldiers who must stay in place to protect their injured/dead for firing upon the gathering crowd around them after the attack. If Iraqi women are hiding weapons inside their clothes and the attacked soldiers KNOW they are surrounded by hostiles and who knows what, the soldiers are going to fire just like anyone else surrounded and alone in that type of situation. HELP the soldiers or LEAVE as rubber necking and taking pictures of bloody Americans soldiers may get you killed.

The filmed Iraqis say Americans are dividing up Muslims into categories such as Sunni, Shiite or Kurd and Saudi to keep them fighting each other instead of ganging up and ejecting the American occupying force. Interesting theory. Our government is using the same tactic to divide up Americans pitting Republicans against Democrats or liberals against conservatives while our Constitution is destroyed.

Maybe the Iraqis and Americans should both wake up. We get the governments we deserve. Fight your own revolution if you want one like we did our own Revolutionary War and Civil War.

A lot of Americans agree with the Iraqis in this film. Americans should leave Iraq/Afghanistan and the Middle East. A lot of Americans, whether we agreed with the war or not, would like a DISCOUNT on the Iraqi oil we purchase given we've spent billions liberating Iraq. It is the height of hypocrisy to criticize Iran's recent election when the U.S. government is allowing taxpayer money to fund ACORN which undermines our own free elections. In a few years, we may be following the Iranians into the streets.

Americans have their own problems to fix without interfering in another country's issues
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