This post is mostly for our recent very active addition to OT.

There are a few films I want you to watch. They are Hollywood dramatizations of true stories which I hope will press you to be skeptical of common narratives you are a subject of.


Shock and Awe (2017)
Starring: Woody Harrelson, James Marsden, Tommy Lee Jones, and Rob Reiner himself
Theme: Media responsibility and government deception leading to war.
viewable on Amazon Prime

Fair Game (2010)
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Naomi Watts (as Valerie Plame) and Sean Penn (as Joe Wilson)
Based on: The real CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband Joe Wilson.

Official Secrets (2019)
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Keira Knightley
Plot: Follows British whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked information about U.S.-led plans to invade Iraq.
Theme: Courage, whistleblowing, and moral responsibility against political manipulation.
streaming on YouTube


All regimes shape truth.
I think you'll find in the future that the Trump regime has committed some serious breaches against what you deem acceptable.

These entertaining films are also educational. Have fun!

Hubris: Selling the Iraq War (2013, MSNBC documentary)

Based on: The book Hubris by Michael Isikoff and David Corn.
Focus: How journalists, politicians, and intelligence officials helped sell the WMD narrative to the public.

44 Minutes

PBS Frontline ran a series of episodes on the lies that led to the deadly and unnecessary war in Iraq.


PBS / Frontline Film
Year
Core Focus
Tone


Truth, War and Consequences
2003
Early warning, pre-proof questioning
Investigative


The Dark Side
2006
Cheney's manipulation of intelligence
Expos


Bush's War
2008
Full account of lies and bureaucratic failures
Definitive


Losing Iraq
2014
Post-withdrawal fallout
Reflective


The Longest War
2020
Broader historical reckoning
Analytical

The Wolfowitz Doctrine

refers to a pivotal and controversial U.S. foreign policy framework drafted in 1992 by thenDeputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and his aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. (Yes, the same Scooter Libby featured in the Fair Game movie above who illegally outed Valerie Plame's CIA role in order to distract from husband Joe Wilson's effort to stop the lie that there was no uranium yellowcake in Niger.)


The Wolfowitz Doctrine argued that, after the Cold War, the U.S. should maintain unmatched global military dominance and prevent any rival from rising to challenge its power, even if that required preemptive or unilateral action.

Its principles heavily influenced the George W. Bush administration's 2002 National Security Strategy, justifying interventions like the Iraq War.

The doctrine's consequences included U.S. military engagement in preemptive wars, strained international relations, and long-term instability in regions like Iraq and the Middle East.

The Wolfowitz Doctrine is also what has driven US policy in Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of retaking control over Russian resources, which had been re-nationalized by Putin in the 00s after they were sold off for pennies on the dollar under Yeltsin in the 1990s.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs outlines how Dick Cheney, while Defense Secretary, wasn’t content with the dismantling of the Soviet Union, he wanted to see Russia dismembered and broken up into small countries.

War criminal Dick Cheney passed away today at 84. https://t.co/OGT7PUymb9 pic.twitter.com/TnQdDiimU9

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) November 4, 2025

Maybe in 20 years time there will be movies showing how people like Nuland run that policy in Ukraine, and pundits like Anne Applebaum or Timothy Snyder helped sell the destruction of Ukraine to the general public, the same way people like Judith Miller or Tom Friedman helped sell the invasion of Iraq two decades ago.

The Wolfowitz Doctrine is basically a global repackaging of the Monroe Doctrine, which was geographically limited to the western hemisphere. It is being revived today with the sabre rattling in Venezuela, with Machado being the Venezuelan equivalent for what Ahmed Chalabi was for Iraq 25 years ago.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner urges US invasion, offering natural resources from her homeland. pic.twitter.com/cUnIzqrhSu

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) November 3, 2025

How does the blob manipulate intelligence to push endless wars and global revolutions?

From Ahmed Chalabi’s faulty intel to the CIA’s illegal torture program, the tactics that paved the way for the invasion of Iraq.

I break it all down, and more with @unfiltered__sam pic.twitter.com/TcM3f2GF0Y

— John Kiriakou (@JohnKiriakou) June 10, 2025

I found it ironic Chaney died today after I was researching him this morning.

Interesting personal tie in here, which I've posted before:

Chaney and my dad are similar age, had the draft deferment for college. Both were finishing their college, and thus their deferment status expiring, when Kennedy announced in September of 1963 that married men aged 1923 would be drafted only after all eligible single men had been called up.
Both men were married in August of 1964.
My mom said they would have waited another year until after she graduated from Cal.

But then On August ~20, 1965, LBJ announced Executive Order 11241, which eliminated the draft deferment for childless married men.
New rule: Any man who got married after midnight on August 26, 1965 would be treated the same as a single man for draft purposes.

Before the change: Married men without children were generally drafted only after single men had been exhausted.
After the change: The deferment applied only to men who were married before the cutoff date and even then, it was temporary unless they had children.

Yes LBJ's 1965 draft policy change triggered a small "baby boomlet" as couples rushed to conceive children to retain draft deferments. This was a direct response to Executive Order 11241, which ended deferments for childless married men.

The Baby Boomlet Effect

Strategic conception: Many couples who had married before the deadline began trying to conceive quickly so the husband could retain his deferment.
Empirical evidence: A study titled Paternity Deferments and the Timing of Births found a statistically significant increase in first births among couples married before the cutoff, especially in 1966.
Mechanism: The Selective Service System's updated rules made having a child the only reliable way to avoid conscription for married men.


Liz Cheney was born on July 28, 1966, in Madison, Wisconsin.

My older brother was born less than 2 months later.
My mom says that she recalls all of a sudden there was reason to get off birth control. And very shortly after she was pregnant.

Liz was born 11 months later.
Brother was born 13 months later.

And then Dick becomes an advocate for more war and death. Quite fascinating.

Cal88 said:

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The Wolfowitz Doctrine is also what has driven US policy in Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of retaking control over Russian resources, which had been re-nationalized by Putin in the 00s after they were sold off for pennies on the dollar under Yeltsin in the 1990s.

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I can see how you draw that line - with various interests in having a weak Russia and a strong Ukraine in the Western Europe sphere. But at the end of the day, it was RUSSIA that invaded Ukraine.
Let's not try and blame the United States for this war!!!

I think I'll get upset if you try to blame Putin's invasion on USA.
USSR invaded vast lands after WW2.
USSR fell apart because of their own problems.

Did you want USA to roll out a red carpet for USSR to take all those lands over again??

I don't think I follow this logic.

Yes, Monroe Doctrine mindset is quite prevalent in USA and impacts our thinking on a lot. But Russia is the aggressor here. Crosses borders with tanks and missiles. F Putin!

Well, this should make a great film one day!