Adam Curtis, the BBC documentarian of "The Century of the Self" and "The Power of Nightmares" returns to the Middle East by exploring the history between Afghanistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia in "Bitter Lake".
Where the story bounces back and forth in time. Starting with The Quincy Agreement.
A secret agreement signed between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the King of Saudi Arabia in 1945 ensuring US aid for assisting them in the modernization of infrastructure--as well as military security in exchange for the United States having secure access to their oil supply.
The title "Bitter Lake" is based on the name of the Egyptian lake in middle of the Suez Canal. Where salt water from the Mediterranean and Red Sea meet--as well as where this agreement between FDR and the King of Saudi Arabia took place.
"Bitter Lake" follows through on this history and developing relationship between the United States and the Middle East. From which it gives the viewer a better idea of how those seeds of dysfunction and the current state of severe upheaval--suggesting as well as the roots of the US population's misgivings about military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq (i.e. Oil).
US Soldiers hanging out & talking about recent exploits
View this video on YouTube
This is the kind of footage that scandalized the US military situation in Vietnam thanks to the broadcast journalists reporting to Walter Cronkite at CBS in the late 1960s--which has been conspicuously missing in most of our reporting (besides over-the-top scandals, such as Abu Ghraib )
Footage such as this is peppered throughout the story Adam Curtis shows that may undoubtedly bring people back to the type of film press covered with seemingly greater ease and transparency to the American people during the Vietnam War.
You can watch "Bitter Lake" in it's entirety on either YouTube or on the BBC's Video iPlayer
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