The World Without US (2008/V)

Documentary, 83 minutes

Directed by Mitch Anderson and Jason J. Tomaric

Narrated by Mitch Anderson

What if the United States did not intervene in any of the world conflicts in the last 20 years?

Filmed only and sold initially for American audiences, this direct-to-video documentary tells about the said 'what-if' based on three perspective superpowers around the world: namely the European Union, The Middle East, and Asia.

On the European Union segment, it cites an example of the Yugoslavia conflict in which several interviews with the residents and research analysts (namely Niall Ferguson and some other German journalists) were made and mentioned that the EU 'did not do anything' to stop the said growing internal war in this nation and it only ended with US/NATO defense intervention.

On the Middle East segment, interviews with a former Kuwait chief of Culture and Communications tells about how Iraq 'initially stole' oil from Kuwait and sold it to the world for a cheaper price at Saddam Hussein's rule, Niall Ferguson about the growth of oil-producing nations through education provided by Western influences, the growing anarchy of Arabs centering around the "anti-Israel, pro-Palestine" conflict (what surprised me was a mention of Lebanon being "a puppet state of Syria), and how the US intervention paved way for democratic voting in Iraq.

On the Asia segment, interviews with several Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese analysts about the US bases in South Korea and Japan awaiting North Korea's strike and China's "silent roar" (China being called a "market Leninism") and why the US seems to be paying taxes for defenses in Asia against such possible assaults on nearby countries.

The documentary starts out with a fictional minute film (which seems a bit unnecessary) about a US presidential candidate who plans to achieve the American vision of removing all of their defense arms around the world to settle on their own problems within its nation. Narrations by the director follow as he traces back to his own Romanian roots in which he had lived his younger days in the last few years of the Lenin era and how his immigration to the US paved way to his thoughts as to why plenty of people around the world 'hated' America when there seems to be no sense to the hatred at all.

Amidst the somewhat unnecessary shots of what-if minute films with actors playing in it, the documentary is still quite entertaining with a lot of the said interviews, news footages, and even the 'promotional North Korean communist' video in which I don't know where the director got that from.

http://www.theworldwithoutus.com/