Documentary Feature

Taxi to the dark side

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Written and directed by: Alex Gibney
Awards: Best Documentary feature at Academy Awards’ 08

“The only thing I know for certain is that these are bad people,” George W. Bush

A question that’s often asked in context of the Iraq war is, whether ends can justify the means. I feel it’s the wrong question. The right one would be, can the wrong means lead to the right ends. And this is the issue raised and investigated in this provocative documentary by Alex Gibney (who previously directed the excellent docu-feature, Enron: the smartest guys in the room).

By now anyone remotely interested in world affairs would have seen the Abu Ghraib photographs and read the tales of dreadful torture perpetrated in the name of waging the war on terror. If you are a believer in the ‘tough times call for tough measures’ adage, you might agree with the techniques approved by the unholy trinity of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield. If you are…hmm…pretty much anyone else, you would be recoiling in horror at it. So, everyone has their opinions firmly in place. In such a scenario you might wonder, what role could be played by a documentary like this. An essential one for it drives home the immediacy of these issues in an atmosphere of escalating hate and fear.

Was it just a few bad apples? Or was it a conscious policy decision to circumvent the Geneva conventions and dehumanize the prisoners in the eyes of the soldiers. The investigation begins by zooming into the story of a young Afghan Taxi driver, Dilawar, who was carrying three passengers in his new car and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was picked up by the Afghan militia and delivered to the US army. Five days later he turned up dead with heavy bruising across his body and his legs pulpified. A New York Times journalist contacted his family and obtained the death certificate which gave the cause of death as ‘homicide’. But no one had been charged at that point. Later on, Dilawar was found to be absolutely innocent.

Step by step, the decisions at the top percolating down the chain of command are traced back. The ambiguity intentionally infused into the codes of conduct coupled with the intense pressure to produce information and results is revealed. These soldiers were watching their friends and colleagues being blown up, shot, killed every day. And the Bush administration fed upon the fear of the masses post 9/11. A ticking bomb scenario was generated where the interrogators were forced to choose between the ‘greater good’ of the American people and the basic dignity of the prisoners.

When Abu Ghraib burst onto the front pages of the media, the young men and women who had been pushed and who in turn pushed their often innocent captives to the limit were made to pay a heavy price. The inquiries never looked upwards or tried to get to the root of the malaise.

The documentary consists of interviews with army men and politicians, archival footage and official documents. It is lucid in its presentation of the facts and arresting due to its relevance. What comes across powerfully is the erosion of the ethical high ground claimed by the US and the blurring of the lines between good and evil. It must have surely given a fillip to the recruitment drives of Al-Qaeda and co. I am an Indian and I have seen how terrorism can insidiously infiltrate into and disorient the moral compass of a nation. But once human decency is gone, the battle is half lost. As an oft misunderstood and misquoted German philosopher happened to mention, “Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.”