After the readings, it became clear to me that Saudi Arabia has been spared the costly wars prevalent throughout the rest of the Middle East because of American protection. This is not to say that American protection necessarily benefitted Saudi Arabia, but the U.S. military proved no match for the Iraqi army. However, had the United States not been involved, it is very likely that Saudi Arabia would have been attacked by Iraq as well. The close proximity of Saudi Arabian oil fields to Kuwait meant that the damage from the fire that Saddam set in Kuwait oil fields did travel to Saudi Arabia. Since the environmental effects of this have already been discussed in the previous posts, such as the effect on the birds, I thought that I would post some visual representations of the fires themselves. Here is a video I found that shows the fires and briefly explains how they began:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DoxBG5zdxg&feature=related
This video is a broadcast from CNN on the first day of the Iraqi invasion into Kuwait. The amount of tanks and helicopters is pretty astonishing, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think about how much pollution they are probably causing. Plus, this is only the Iraqi troops; I’m sure U.S. troops considerably polluted the area as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oybdr9rzMKM&feature=related
Also, although this doesn’t have anything to do with our topic, I watched the Documentary Web of Deceit on YouTube. It does a really good job explaining what our readings went over this week, but the addition of images make it so much more real (at least for me). If your search “Web of Deceit” on youtube, you can find it installed in parts.
ok it's Iraq but it's interesting
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Here is a link to a blog put up by Morgan on a different Blog. There are a
number of entries that tie more to your topic than theirs. Enjoy.
15 years ago
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I thought it was interesting to see how the video on the fires in Kuwait was produced. No doubt the images shown are incredible and bewildering-- it is clear that Kuwait was in fact "a country on fire."
ReplyDeleteThe reporting, however, makes use of entertainment tactics, dramatizing the invasion that seems more for the purpose of viewing "pleasure" than actually emphasizing how serious the situation was. At times, it was almost if I was watching a preview for a movie, especially with the added effects of the music, and the dramatic voiceover of the reporter. This news coverage obviously does inform and exposed me to images that are deeply striking, but I wonder how much sensationalizing the invasion makes it seem almost unreal.