Freedom Land: American and Iraqi Slavery

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

- Henry David Thoreau

What would bring you to riot? In the film Freedom Land a neighborhood is shut down because a young boy is missing and the authorities believe that someone in this neighborhood is guilty of the crime. The neighborhood though is a project and the authorities that make the decision we find out are white. Soon tensions flare and due to wrong on both sides a riot ensue.
Now just for a moment imagine, that the neighborhood is in Mosul and the authorities are riding around in tanks. Do you still feel the sympathy you did for those in the project? Iraqi’s are people of color, they are not white skinned and they are suffering the indignity of constant searches. The footage you see of soldiers handing out soccer balls is a step in the right direction but I wonder, I just wonder. A soccer ball is one thing but a body bag for a child who was in the line of fire is another. In this country a child shot dead in the line of fire, police fire, would be heralded as a victim. People who appear from everywhere and would place flowers and cards, toys etc and this happens in the film Freedom Land also.
Remember what I said before? There was wrong on both sides in the film and in Iraq as well. As soon as someone did place flowers, cards, or toys at the site where a child was shot someone would place or explode a bomb nearby killing the families of the children and those troops who sought to keep the area safe. But with peacekeepers there is a problem that exists in the police in this country and that is adrenaline. It happen in the film Freedom Land and it happens in Iraq today. If you saw the footage of our troops shooting men who were lying on the floor of a building bleeding you will know or at least have a n idea of what young men and women are capable of a long way from home and when they are feeding off the rush of adrenaline that some crave as bad as heroin or fame.
There is so much wrong in the world that to try and explain it would bring you to tears, so I ask you, why add to it? There is wrong on both sides. The lives lost in Freedom Land were not really lost. Freedom Land was adapted from a novel and the deaths in iraq are dissolving a generation.


- Chris Mansel