Syriana Review

Syriana was one of best works of political drama/fiction I have ever seen on the big screen. And unlike Michael Moore's sensational skewed documentaries, this movie actually puts forth a compelling case as to why American involvement in the Middle East is so costly to both our nation and that region of the world.

The movie starts with George Clooney, the CIA point man in Tehran selling weapons to a young man who is indulging a female friend. It turns out that Clooney has knowingly sold weapons to a instructor at a school which teaches radical Islam and trains suicide bombers. We learn later in the movie that the schools prey upon displaced Pakistani and Indian workers in the oil fields who lose their jobs but want to stay in the Gulf. These former workers become easy prey for the Islamists and are trained as suicide bombers. The Americans and the CIA in the mean time believe Iran can be friendly and work as hard as they can to protect oil interests in the Gulf. That means approving a merger between two oil giants despite the obvious violations of anti-trust law and stamping out any and all reform movements for political freedom and democracy in the gulf, since political freedom will mean competitive bidding on petroleum related resources. I'm not going to give away more of the plot, but Syriana is a must watch for those interested in the failed American policy in the gulf and how we got to this point.