Review of Iraq for Sale - Essay Example

Iraq for Sale: A Critical Review If “Triumph of the Will” by Leni Riefenstahl is considered as the greatest propaganda film for Nazi, “Iraq for Sale” offers an excellent documentation of explaining deviance and politics. “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” is a very brave documentary film showing the consequences of Iraq war and other complications raised by the no-bids contractors working in Iran. Basically it deals with four major contractors, Blackwater, K.B.R.-Halliburton, CACI and Titan.

Opening with a close look of two case studies, the film manifolds the actual story behind the scene. It starts with telling stories of two Blackwater contractors Scott Helveston and Jerry Zovko who were killed in the cost cutting exercise of the company. After that the plot revolves around how the poorly supervised private interrogators and untrained translators were severely engaged in the prisoner abuse case in Abu Ghraib. The film focuses on the cost of the loss of the traditional military jobs.

From any kind of reconstruction jobs to troop and support, from police training to surveillance-everything was controlled by private contractors. Even the film also focuses that a highest part of the government allows such contractors to get the reward with sole-source contract without facing any competition in bidding. The stock of the companies only double and redouble as a result truckers were sent to the battle zone without military escorts. Just to make cost cutting they put untrained people to interrogate at Abu Ghraib.

The focus of the film is how such private contractors over bill US government while provided substantial work. They also endanger lives of American soldiers and private citizen altogether. The film also reveals ex-military and ex-government officials to help such contractors in a very unethical manner. The dark background of the reconstruction process of Iraq is shown through the lives of soldier, truck drivers, widows and children. The connection between the private contractors and the decision makers has changed many lives in the profiteering process.

The film documents how much income the Iraq war has brought to the corporations (web, 2006). The film shows how such contractors put American soldiers in harm’s way, how it hurts the effectiveness of US militaries. Not only that they endanger the lives of ex-military personnel who were promised to pay more wages but the reality was something different. Just because of the interrogation of such companies, “the prisons have become the training ground of torture”(Iraq for Sale, 2006). Just because of a philosophical predisposition that private sector is more efficient.

The profiteering process is contracted to for-profit entities. The problem is not in their profit making but the method by which they make money and their dealings with such a serious procedure. As the firms are well connected on congress, they never asked any question on their accountability. The film depicts how deviance exists in Iraq through proper politics while reconstructing everything once again. It shows how deviance and politics affect the lives of thousands of people. From the sociological perspective, deviance is the ultimate weapon of study that dissects a long dead discipline (web, 2003).

This is really crucial to define deviance whether it exists or not in any society. This helps to understand the social order. “Iraq for Sale” is a perfect documentation of a compact study. This film studies how political power encourages corporate greed, corruption and incompetence in the reconstruction process that has changed the lives of thousands of innocent people. Even the film is a phenomenon one as the funding came through the web world and within ten days (Davies,A.P., & Wistreich, N., 2007). An appeal for making a political film while revealing the truth over the internet by the director Robert Greenwald really made this production a history.

References: 1. Iraq for Sale, 2006, Robert Greenwald 2. web, 2006, 'Iraq for Sale', retrieved on May 14 2011 from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/cl-et-iraq8sep08,1,2614877.story 3. web, 2003, Deviant Deception, retrieved on May 14 2011 from http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/207728/deviant-deception/kathryn-jean-lopez 4. Davies,A.P., & Wistreich, N., 2007, pg 160, The Film Finance Handbook: How to Fund Your Film, retrieved on May 14 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?

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