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January 10, 2005
The Hamburg Cell
I just saw this incredible movie on HBO 2, The Hamburg Cell, a docudrama on the men who were responsible for the 9/11 disasters. I think the director did a phenomenal job; inasmuch as he portrayed the Jihad Terrorists as men—human beings under the maddening influence of religious fervor, but men all the same.
Karim Saleh, portrays Ziad Jarrah, a likable dental student from a well-to-do Lebanese family, who falls under the influence of the fanatics in Al Qaeda. Agni Tsangaridou does an outstanding job as Aysel, the Turkish girl with whom he falls in love and marries, and brings to Florida under the auspices of “getting away” from the fanatics. He continues to lie to her about his activities up until the United Flight 93 is brought down in a field in Pennsylvania. We do not see the heroic struggle on the flight by the passengers, the movie simply ends with footage of the twin towers burning, interspersed with Aysel's shock while watching the television and finally Jarrah's entrance to the plane before the credits begin.
This movie was not presented with judgment, merely presented what was, from the apparent perspective of Mr. Jarrah. Like many movies, in which we know the end, it started on 9/11 at the Newark airport, with Jarrah’s telephone call to Aysel, telling her he loves her, over and over again. Then we arrive into the past, where Jarrah is just entering college in Hamburg, while he was still a “non-practicing” Muslim.
These men could hardly have been called cowards, and I still applaud Bill Maher's on-air statement alleging that they could never have been cowards. Horribly misguided soldiers of a religious war in which there are no victors, only victims. Our president was stupid to call them what they are not. It is only in knowing the enemy do we have a chance to understand them and defeat them, or better yet, quell them before it erupts again.
This Jihad is never-ending, and the ramifications are far-reaching. What have the repercussions of 9/11 wrought beyond that time? Our president overthrows a dictator of a country, who, in fact, had been cited by those terrorists as an enemy of Muslims for the fact that his government was already responsible for the murder of countless followers of Islam. In effect, we have done some of their work for them—and then who is made to look the fool to the rest of the world? America. Because we have been caught in the quagmire of a war that we cannot win. And in essence, we have created more enemies in the process.
And by reelecting the president who put us there—furthermore by nominating a Democratic candidate who guaranteed to keep us there, no help to his campaign, we have finally affirmed that yes, we are the fools the rest of the world believes us to be.
Posted by Bastique at January 10, 2005 11:55 PM
Comments
I started watching that recently,and after the first couple minutes I changed the channel...I just wasn't paying much attn,but since I have Direct Tv now again,I'll look it up and see when it comes on again. Since u say it's pretty informative,I'll really have to check it out.
T.
Posted by: tammi at January 11, 2005 3:37 PM