June 2002Issue 346



Not in my Name

Even though the media glare has moved elsewhere, the war in Afghanistan continues and — according to George Bush — is ‘only just beginning’. This professionally produced independent video combines comment from leading figures of the Left such as John Pilger and Tony Benn, along with interviews with anti-war demonstrators and activists, TV news footage and a script by writer Tariq Ali. It takes a critical look at media coverage and overturns the war’s principal myths. Essentially the film shows that rather than dealing with the root causes of terror by addressing the genuine grievances of Muslim peoples, the US undertook an indiscriminate bombing campaign that has very likely killed more civilians than were killed in the US on 11 September, inflaming anti-American feeling across the Muslim world and making the possibility of future terrorist attacks against the US and Britain more likely. It was the US which helped develop the Islamic fundamentalist movement as a proxy army against the Soviets in Afghanistan during the Cold War in the 1980s (and also earlier as a counterweight to Nasser and Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s). The ‘War On Terror’ is actually more likely to be about securing US ‘national interests’ — the massive oil reserves opening up in the ex-Soviet countries surrounding Afghanistan.

Whilst this analysis will be familiar to those who have been following the post-11 September events closely, for a low-budget indie this makes a useful educational tool that should help inspire action in the anti-war movement.

The film is available on video cassette from * TV Choice*, 22 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HR, +44 (0) 207 379 0873 or e-mail christinetongue@aol.com

Product information
produced by Platform Films and TV Choice
Star rating

The film is available on video cassette from * TV Choice*, 22 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HR, +44 (0) 207 379 0873 or e-mail christinetongue@aol.com

Phil England




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