Weekly Response: Week 5

The images of the attacks on September 11th were horrifying and disturbing to a whole nation of people. How could a society so great and seemingly untouchable be so blatantly and easily attacked on its own soil? Video clips of chaos and destruction appeared all over the news. American citizens and people around the globe seemed to be in a state of shock. Following the strike on America was the retaliation. War was eminent and the United States struck Afghanistan and later Iraq with its superior military power; a force that seemed so powerful that no other army could stand in its way. However, during the course of the war, the seeds of humiliation and destruction were planted for the credibility of the United State’s campaign. Video footage of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and humiliated leaked out and was seen by the global public. By ridiculing the enemy, American troops were violating the power they had been given and entrusted to use in a manner that the world approved of. As Jean Baudrillard says in his article War Porn: “One sees that the goal of the war is not to kill or to win, but abolish the enemy, extinguish the light of his sky.” He also speaks on how the Iraqi prisoners in the video footage are stripped physically of their clothing and stripped emotionally of their honor. This humiliation, to them, is worse then death. Whether this event was meant to be caught on film or not, it is a representation of how humiliation can be used to degrade and destroy ones enemies. In Michael Moore’s films (Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11…etc) he uses the camera and his questions to humiliate his opponents. Whether it is rednecks selling guns at a bank or Charlton Heston, Michael Moore makes his subjects looks stupid and evil in order to attack his larger enemy: American Society as a whole.