Movie: Eye in the Sky

Premise: 

Col. Katherine Powell, a military officer in command of an operation to capture terrorists in Kenya, sees her mission escalate when a young girl enters the kill zone, triggering an international dispute over the implications of modern warfare.

(Edited out of my post a lot of swearing and top-notch insults...there's still a lot of swearing)

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I just finished watching this incredible movie. All that I can think about right now is this.

Every single international relations student needs to fucking watch Eye in the Sky. 

Actually, every single person who holds any opinion about war, politics, and human rights needs to watch Eye in the Sky.

I am not kidding. 

You know how many people think they know what it's like to make a judgement call in the heart of an ongoing war zone?

To think that wartime actions can be critiqued through the black and white lens of moral absolutism (i.e. "this act is always wrong" and "this act is always right")?

To think that their personal interpretation of an intricate military or government decision is somehow an 'obvious' one, and more credible than those held by the people who actually knew all the available facts, have experienced war on the ground, and have to bear real-world responsibility for their decisions? 

A LOT. Because I had to debate such persons (friends IRL) with such views on Facebook recently.

Eye in the Sky, a consummately woven and utterly compelling story, will make what I think is already totally fucking obvious even more obvious. 

Wartime decisions, especially under tight time frames and unforgiving public scrutiny, are extremely difficult to make. They also and very often involve moral ambiguity, and moral relativism. Sometimes, it is as impossible to decide on a wartime action as it is to answer the biggest philosophical/ethical questions of our time. 

e.g. THAT 'trolley problem':

There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the side track. You have two options: (1) Do nothing, and the trolley kills the five people on the main track. (2) Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person. Which is the most ethical choice?

I feel like everything I'm typing out right now is so commonsensical and shouldn't even need to be stated. I feel like a fucking pedagogic, tautological dickhead even pasting the trolley problem here, and bolding certain lines that I think are important. I don't want to come off patronising and yet... 

The fact that I had clearly intelligent friends not understanding or unwilling to recognise this concept of 'yeah, sometimes there is no way to decide on right and wrong, and thus it is probably not a good idea for us as privileged first-world netizens to impose our opinions onto other people with more knowledge than us, relating to problems that they personally deal with' - was immensely frustrating.

Of course, it would be acceptable that somebody make a moral judgment AFTER they take into account every possible factor (that is available to them) about the conflict. But frankly, we're twenty something year old college students living in the most liveable city in the world. Come on.

There is simply no way we are in any position to know everything about a freaking war occurring 3000 miles away in a country, and then comment authoritatively on a morally ambiguous situation occurring in its midst. 

Anyway, Eye in the Sky is a MUST WATCH. It is just a beautiful film. I weeped for a few seconds at the end. 

KIND OF A SPOILER (pretty obvious ending anyway) (the most apt summary of Eye in the Sky):

Tear-stained politician:

"In my opinion, that was disgraceful. And all done from the safety of your chair."

A Lieutenant General stands up, preparing to leave the room. In a deep, measured tone, he reminds her:

"I have attended the immediate aftermath of five suicide bombings. 

On the ground, with the bodies. 

What you witnessed today, with your coffee and biscuits, is terrible. 

What these men would have done would have been even more terrible. 

Never. Tell a soldier. That he does not know the cost of war."

Everyone shines a light for France. But who's going to shine the light for Beirut?

Nobody. And that's the truth. Because tonight, while all the western European countries are putting on pretty, poignant displays of French colours over their iconic buildings and bridges, the suffering of humans in Lebanon are ignored. And for the first time in my life, the hypocrisy is actually pissing me off. 

Yeah, lots of things are pissing me off these days. Incessant make-up advertisements tailored towards me simply because I'm a girl; stupid ass puns on Facebook; the cretins defending the Apple store security guard; "safe spaces", "trigger warnings" and sanctimonious "social justice warriors" all make me want to rip a stress ball to shreds. 

But at this very moment, nothing pisses me off more than hearing someone say "I'm not racist, but we need to stop accepting refugees" or worse, "turn them back, we need to protect our own citizens first." 

These people are so fucking selfish. Fuck. 

You are essentially saying that humans of the Middle East are not worth the same value of humans from first world European/Western societies. Somehow, they're of lesser quality. Not worth a response. 

Indeed, we've become so immune to violence in the Middle East, so used to hearing about Syrians, Lebanese, Libyans, Jordanians, Israelis, Palestinians, dying and being slaughtered - that it's not even 'news' anymore. Middle Eastern people aren't even 'humans' anymore. They're just facts, statistics, numbers that you see on a fucking screen. 

Syrians, for example, are victims of chemical attacks from their own government. They're being used as literal human shields by all sides, being locked up in cages and dragged in front of rebel tanks/cars/soldiers. They're being indiscriminately targeted by Russian airstrikes. Hundreds of thousands die. And netizens don't give a flyingggggg fuck.

Earlier this month, Syrian women caged by militants and used as shields against airstrikes.

To be honest, a few months ago, I probably wouldn't have given it that much thought either. I'd see the pictures, gasp, and then move on. But I don't want to have this response anymore.

Tonight really woke me up to that. 

I have Muslim friends from international student club groups at university who feel persecuted every day by the inane comments of racist Australians like Pauline Hanson. 

I have Cambodian friends whose parents fled their home country on shoddy boats to seek asylum in Australia and still deal with anti-"boat people" sentiment, while being illegally paid below-minimum wages. 

I have Sri Lankan friends whose families are scarred by the recent civil war between the Tamils and Sinhalese, and who carry those scars and tensions with them into the classroom even if they try to hide it.

I have been taught humanities by a (blonde-haired, blue-eyed) teacher who was a second generation Lebanese-Australian, who once brought in Lebanese food for the class, and whose son was also a student in my year level. 

I have grown up with Pakistani Muslims in primary school, including one boy who did a class project on Jet Li and shared his love of Linkin Park with a Vietnamese classmate in the computer rooms when they really weren't supposed to be there. 

I have listened to intelligent friends subconsciously uphold racist stereotypes with remarks like "sorry, I just don't date Asians". 

I have taken friends back home and listened to my relatives make off-hand racist remarks about how dark their complexions were, and how they might steal things from our house.  

I have had one friend also make off-hand racist 'jokes' about Indians smelling like curry and having dirty bathrooms while we were sitting inside an Indian restaurant, surrounded by Indian families. 

And while I love a few politically incorrect jokes myself, I would never fucking do that^.

So screw this world. Screw racists. Screw ignorance. And fuck your stupid little racist jokes. 

Wake the FUCK UP to what you are doing and contributing to. Put things in freaking perspective. Think of all the friends and acquaintances that might be affected by your words, or omissions. And stand up for them. 

Because as Emma Watson said - if not me, who? If not now, when?