Worth the Price?

Referring to a comment from U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright that the U.S. victory over Iraq was worth the price of death and destruction, Worth the Price?--a brief, hard-hitting polemic that shakes a compassionate fist in the viewer's face--visits modern-day Iraq to look at the "price" of U.S./UN sanctions over the past eight years. Going directly for the emotional throat, the video consists primarily of statistical bullets (750,000 children have died), interviews with Iraqi doctors, teachers and--most heartbreakingly--mothers, and a series of terribly haunting shots of suffering children who, lacking proper nutrition and medicine, are dying at an obscene rate. Normally, I do not like these kinds of programs; I would rather be given a comprehensive overview of the situation with pros and cons presented by each side, than harangued by single-minded people with an agenda. Still, I don't believe that the American public has an inkling of what's really happening in Iraq today, and while Worth the Price? is hardly a dispassionate look at the state of Iraqi affairs, it is an eye-opening wake up call that the Gulf War--and the fallout of that war--is far from over. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)