The last time I was asked this question, I strongly
agreed that governments had the right to mislead their people in order to
promote national security. I made the assumption that the average government
cares for its people’s well being over its own, however I was wrong. Although
there are a modest number of governments that truly do care for their people,
many governments care for the country’s economic well being more than anything
else. Thus, it is not okay for governments to mislead their people to promote
security. Assuming that people will educate themselves and come to understand
the political situation of the nation, governments must always be transparent
with what it is doing and why it is doing it.
In the documentary, the American government had
economic interest in the Gulf region, however rather than telling its people
the truth as to why they began a war in Iraq they mislead them and that created
a plethora human rights violations under the name of a fabricated ‘justice.’
“History is written by the victors. People
like victory. Once you are victorious you don’t have to justify.” This quote
truly resonated with me as it caused me to think about the uniform fashion in
which history is told, a multitude of perspectives is rarely found. With that
said, it leads me to the second quote which was powerful in its message,
"objectivity is like a mirage. “Nothing we perceive is truly objective,
everything we know is infatuated by either or own personal bias or the
creator's bias. We must be able to make our decisions as to what we want to believe;
therefore it is not okay for the government to mislead the people in order to
promote security.
Although this completely contrasts my initial id
ignorantiam, I believe that governments should not be making assumptions as to
how competent its people are and whether they deserve to know the truth. It is
their right to know every action that is taken under their names, such as the
Iraqi war initiated by the ‘Americans.’
It is important for governments to maintain a level
of transparency in regards to their actions as they represent the people on the
international field.
