Course Reflection

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Modern Middle East

Section A: What are the issues addressed in the film?

“Vice” is released in the box office, a film directed by Adam Mackay about American politics, businessman and former vice president Dick Cheney. The main role was played by Christian Bale (and received the Golden Globe for it), the wife of Cheney Lynn was played by Amy Adams, President George W. Bush - Sam Rockwell. Film critic of "Medusa" Anton Dolin tells how Mackay once again managed to make an exciting and witty film about the nature of bureaucracy and the banality of evil. The film describes the events of several decades of the life of one of the most influential US politicians. The story begins in 1963, when 22-year-old filmmaker Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) drives Wyoming's roads drunk in the insole, and ends in the 2000s, when Cheney becomes the second person in the United States to make key political decisions.

The non-linear plot biopic describes how an ordinary electrician patiently paves his way, trying to embody mainly the ambitions of his wife Lynn (Amy Adams) and partly her own. The picture is generously diluted with humor, documentary chronicles and flashbacks. After all, the hero of the picture by Adam Mackay is US Vice President Dick Cheney. He ruled the country along with George W. Bush, without him there could have been no invasion of Iraq and many other dramatic events. For many, Cheney is a living embodiment of evil, and Christian Bale, who played his role, received a prize statuette at the Golden Globes award ceremony, did not hesitate to say thanks for inspiration to Satan himself.

The biographical picture tells about the rise of one of the most famous American politicians and his formation as the most influential vice president in US history. To transform into politics, Bale put a lot of effort. The actor had to not only gain weight, he got used to the image, studying archived video materials, working with a speech therapist on pronunciation and with the choreographer on the gait. As a result, Christian Bale turned out to be practically indistinguishable from the real vice president of the United States under George W. Bush . Cheney Bale is at first a mediocre, but purposeful young man, ready to patiently upholster the thresholds of political “internships” in order to become the gray cardinal of American politics in the future. At the same time, in the biopic of Mackay, he is a caring and loving family man, who prioritizes family relationships and personal privacy.

Dick Cheney actively advocated expanding presidential power in the United States - under his leadership, the Bush administration actively contested laws restricting this power from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. Cheney himself called it the restoration of the "authority of the institution of the presidency."( Nichols54) Cheney also had a great inspiration on the verdict to progress the so-called prolonged questioning approaches - torture of inmates Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo detainees assumed of terrorism.

Section B

The United States has been talking about the so-called “New Middle East” for more than a decade. This vague concept has never been explained at the official level, and it has been intensively discussed by the expert community both domestically and abroad. Having now become universally recognized, it has gone from America-modeled Middle East with “Western democracy” to an undeclared partial revision of the Sykes-Picot agreement that defined the region’s current political boundaries, although the election of Donald Trump may lead to a rethinking of the big US strategy in this direction. The vice president said the arguments put forward against the regime change in Iraq "contain big flaws." According to Cheney, "many of those who argue that we should act only if he acquires nuclear weapons will later say that we should not act because he has nuclear weapons."

Most Americans agree that Washington should promote American values and defend US interests. It is less likely that they favored unilaterally toppling Syria’s government or invading Iraq as part of a neoconservative drive to spread democracy throughout the Middle East. Prior to the election George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had been oil company executives eager to preserve access to Middle Eastern oil, an ongoing US interest( Goldschmidt 437).

During the invasion of Iraq, “ President Bush soon agreed, redirecting resources that could have been used against al-Qaida in an invasion of Iraq, whose connection with the terrorist network was often asserted but never proved”( Goldschmidt 438). As for the war on terror, which, according to critics, could suffer as a result of the American invasion of Iraq, Cheney said the outcome would be exactly the opposite, as, as he put it, "a regime change in Iraq will bring a number of favorable consequences for the region" (Jamieson272).

Turning to the question of the possible reaction of the so-called “Arab street,” Cheney cited the words of the authoritative American specialist in the Middle East, Fuad Ajami, who predicted that the dismissal of Hussein would cause “an explosion of the same glee on the streets of Basra and Baghdad with which the crowd met in Kabul” (Jamieson249). The United States had a question - should it be worth starting a war with Iraq? Information about various attack strategies is leaking to the press. The Bush administration is pushing for a change in Saddam Hussein’s regime, but says it hasn’t yet decided on a military invasion.

There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein is a threat. He is terrorizing his own people. He had already twice started a war with neighboring states. He is making great efforts to revive his military forces and supply them with weapons of mass destruction. We will all be better off when he is gone. Nevertheless, the issue of war must be approached with caution. It is necessary to analyze the links between the problem of Iraq and other priority tasks of the country - for example, the fight against terrorism. In addition, it is necessary to determine the best strategy and tactics of the overthrow of the Hussein regime.

The consequences for the region could be the worst. In the Middle East, it is believed that the Iraq problem is the US obsession. And the obsession of the region itself is the conflict between Israel and Palestine. If in the pursuit of Iraq we forget about this conflict, which, as the region hopes, we are able to resolve, we will face an explosion of indignation. This will be regarded as ignoring the main problem of the Muslim world for the sake of the narrow interests of the United States. If the United States is really serious about the fight against terror, they should leave it their top priority. And if convincing evidence appears that Saddam was involved in the events of September 11, he may become the target of the anti-terrorist operation and world opinion may be inclined to support a regime change.

In general, if the United States considers the whole tangle of Middle East problems and if they continue to fight terrorism in the first place, then the potential for success in all areas of national security policy is quite large, including Iraq. But if the United States rejects such an integrated approach, their actions will become a threat to stability and security in a vital region of the world.

Work cited

Goldschmidt Jr, Arthur. A concise history of the Middle East. Routledge, 2018.

Nichols, John. Dick: The Man Who Is President (Dick Cheney). New York: New Press, 2004.

Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. "Justifying the war in Iraq: What the Bush administration's uses of

evidence reveal." Rhetoric & Public Affairs 10.2 (2007): 249-273.