Reality Versus Hollywood: Analyzing Zero Dark Thirty

In her 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow paints one of the most well-known manhunts conducted by the United States, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. The film’s ending presents the death of bin Laden as a glorious moment in American history. After the U.S. Navy SEALs team enters bin Laden’s room, they quickly locate the target and precisely shoot him to death. “It’s okay,” whispers a member of the SEALs team to the women and children crying in the corner of the room, who are innocent bystanders of bin Laden’s evil scheme. As the team successfully accomplished the mission, the audience sees a team of national heroes that have not only skillfully killed America’s greatest enemy but also treated the innocent with care and respect. In this way, the film depicts targeted killing missions as safe, secure, and fast procedures that are built upon careful research and analysis.
Although Bigelow’s film portrays the killing of bin Laden as a successful and smooth military operation, it glosses over the truth of the vast majority of targeted killing missions in the Middle East. In contrast to the picture painted in the film, the reality is quite heartbreaking – most targeted killing missions are conducted not by

In this paper, I will examine how drone strikes are instituted in America’s foreign policy and their effectiveness against terrorist organizations. Although drone warfare might seem effective and thus desirable for many people, the civilian casualties that it causes increase anti-American sentiment in the region. This sentiment creates a backlash that in fact helps terrorist groups regain their leader, recruit new members, and facilitate revenge, making drones a counterproductive foreign policy