Dirty Wars and Socrates

            Dirty Wars, a documentary made by director Richard Rowley and journalist Jeremy Scahill, has been nominated for best documentary in 2014, but it should turn heads for more reasons than mere critical acclaim. Dirty Wars follows Scahill as he travels the world following the exploits of the United States military. During his investigative work, Scahilll comes across one of the most secretive and powerful military units in the U.S.: Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC.

           JSOC, as the documentary explains, is the only military unit that the President can contact directly and is scarcely mentioned in any official military reports. As the film unfolds, Schahill continues to discover more and more unsettling truths surrounding JSOC, including the killing of a seemingly innocent family. Possibly the biggest problem Scahill uncovers, however, is the fact that U.S. forces have been carrying out planned attacks in countries we are not at war with: “As Scahill digs deeper into the activities of JSOC, he is pulled into a world of covert operations unknown to the public and carried out across the globe by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. In military jargon, JSOC teams ‘find, fix, and finish’ their targets, who are selected through a secret process. No target is off limits for the kill list… (official website ).” In other words, Dirty Wars provides sturdy evidence that suggests the United States’ war on terror has reached far beyond countries like Afghanistan.

            The government, including both President Bush and Obama, has used JSOC increasingly over the years, but the secrecy surrounding this outfit makes it hard to understand completely. Both Scahill and the audience are left to assume that our government is in the process of using force and violence to eliminate whomever our military deems as a threat, regardless of whether or not we have declared war.

            The political issues surrounding Dirty Wars might seem obvious, but I think America’s recent military trends have interesting philosophical implications as well. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates outlines different forms of government and explains various pitfalls associated with each. With regard to democracy, Socrates seems to caution against the exact thing our Scahill discovers in Dirty Wars. Socrates explains the motive of a democratic leader by explaining that, “ …when he is reconciled with some of his enemies outside and has destroyed the other, and there is rest from concern with them, as his first step he is always setting some war in motion…(Bloom, 566e).”

            Scahill is afraid that the war on terror has become a war without end, but why would a government be interested in constantly being involved in war? Socrates suggests that war can be used as a tool for power. If there is war, then the people of a democracy will need a leader to protect them from a perceived threat.  Furthermore, as Socrates explains, war costs money, and people with less money are more inclined to stick to their “daily business”, allow people in power to do as they wish.

            It seems that Socrates’ wisdom may apply to the discoveries in Dirty Wars, but it probably isn’t fair to assume American presidents are acting in such a sinister manner. But, luckily for us, Socrates has plenty of wisdom to share. Just as Scahill suggests in his documentary, Socrates explains that such constant war efforts will eventually harm the health of the democracy as a whole.

            Once again in reference to a democratic leader and people that disagree with him, Socrates states, “ Then the tyrant must gradually do away with all of them, if he’s going to rule, until he has left neither friend nor enemy of any worth whatsoever (567b).” As a democracy continues to go to war, the government and military will get stronger out of necessity. As war gives power to the government, the government continues to try and retain that power. More “enemies” are discovered, and those “enemies” must be eliminated by any means necessary, because the government’s fate depends on it. For Socrates, war in a democracy will eventually become something like a self-fulfilling prophecy. A government grows powerful from war and goes to war to remain powerful.

The problem? The people in charge of eliminating threats are the same people in charge of determining threats. War creates a need to consolidate power to increase efficiency, but it does very little to make sure that power is properly monitored. An “enemy” of the state can now be defined however the state sees fit. The goal of the democratic government becomes remaining powerful, and the citizens suffer as a result. What was once a government designed to preserve freedom devolves into something that takes freedom away.

As Dirty Wars illustrates, an “enemy” of America can be an American citizen, and the U.S. military is not afraid to eliminate such threats through assassination. Anwar al-Awlaki. An American citizen, and his 16 year-old son, also an American citizen, were killed by an American drone attack in Yemen on September 30^th, 2011( full article ). Al-Awlaki was affiliated with al Qaeda, but he was killed without going to court, which is something American citizens are constitutionally guaranteed. Even more shocking was the death of his son. The 16 year-old American citizen’s crime? Being the son of a wanted man. This case is both extreme and rare, but they are sobering nonetheless.

These facts are unsettling, especially when considered out of context, but their proximity to Socrates’ warnings about democracy is palpable. Socrates suggests that a democratic nation will value freedom above all else. He also suggests that this freedom can become corrupt. When a government obtains freedom with a war in which they are actively seeking out conflict, it runs the risk of jeopardizing the initially desired freedom.

All of these things lead us to one question: is America following the very errant path Socrates describes in The Republic? We have been at war for over ten years and spent countless dollars. We have increased surveillance at the price of personal freedom, and we have begun roaming the world in an effort to kill all potential adversaries, including one of our own citizens. Socrates warns against all of these thousands of years ago, yet they happen nevertheless.

Whether or not America has reached a point of serious concern is a debate I hope continues, but one thing is for sure: we have been warned.