Don’t forget Saddam’s victims

Hollywood has been hurt by the victory over Saddam Hussein. Images of liberated Iraqis dancing in the streets, kissing American and British soldiers and praising George W. Bush have made the celebrity prognosticators who rallied against the war look as foolish and misguided as whoever signed off on the $100-million budget of “The Adventures of Pluto Nash.”

Severe egos suffer severe bruises. Some of the Hollywood antiwar crowd will no doubt plunge deeper into vitriol rather than admit a mistake. Michael Moore’s plans for a “documentary” depicting Bush’s connections to Osama bin Laden only demonstrate a polemicist’s anger sucking him down to the depths of Oliver Stone-esque nonsensical conspiracy theory.

Why should the considerable talents of these people turn to the dark side when they could utilize their abilities and celebrity to perform a priceless service for the Iraqis, for humanity and ultimately for their own redemption in the eyes of their audience?

The Shoah Project, from Steven Spielberg, documents first-person accounts of Holocaust survivors. It preserves their stories for the ages, permanently putting human faces on horror, personalizing history. It lays waste to revisionists and deniers now and forever. As Gene Siskel said when reviewing the documentary “Shoah,” it’s the best use of film available, for an indispensably valuable social and historical document, an object lesson for humanity so that we never, ever forget.

The Iraqi victims of Saddam deserve the same.

Film their stories. Susan Sarandon asked, “What has Iraq done to us?” in an antiwar ad. Let her look into the eyes of the children liberated from Saddam’s prisons and ask what was done to them. Interview the Kurds who lost their families to Saddam’s state-run terror. Have the Shiites tell what happened in Saddam’s torture chambers. Interview the writers, actors and artists of Iraq who spoke about Saddam the way you speak about Bush, if you can find any still alive.

I nominate Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell and Janeane Garofalo to conduct the interviews. Perhaps George Clooney or Tim Robbins could direct. You’ll need a good editor because, unfortunately, you’ll wind up with more footage than you ever imagined.

Think what such a film would mean. How would the American public react? It would certainly pressure the Bush administration none of you trust into making good on its promise of democracy. Doesn’t that at least warm your hearts?

Artists love to claim they are revolutionaries. What effect would copies of the film, circulated underground in other oppressive countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, have on those populations? What if it aired on Al Jazeera? Or on Egyptian television, preempting their “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” miniseries?

What would it mean for future generations of Iraqis charged with preserving their freedom?

I’ve been to enough pitch meetings to hear the knee-jerk reaction of a cynical Hollywood: Wouldn’t that just be war propaganda? What about the Iraqis who died because of the war?

The sad reality that it took a war to liberate the Iraqis should not be forgotten either. I doubt a Hollywood film on the Holocaust would juxtapose the civilians of Dresden with the survivors of Dachau. However, Saddam’s victims and the war’s victims are from the same population.

Interview them as well. You might be surprised. Much like the families of American and British soldiers who were killed in this war, they might grieve for their loved ones but will understand that their ultimate sacrifice was for something greater than themselves: the freedom of countless others -- a freedom a film like this will help preserve.

Why it was needed, yes, needed, for war to free a people might also make for interesting reactions from the French audience at Cannes, no?