You can find some of the best war documentaries on television every Tuesday night on WLRN Channel 17, starting at 8:00 p.m.
On January 28, learn how a British prince and grandson of Queen Victoria became embroiled in the Nazi war machine; understand how generals have struggled through to history to raise armies and more importantly how to pay for them; and then discover the covert way U.S. media shapes the negative public opinions most Americans hold on Arabs and Islam:
Hitler's Favorite Royal (8:00 p.m.)
Hitler’s Favourite Royal reveals the extraordinary story of a British prince who became a convicted Nazi. Prince Charles Edward was Queen Victoria's youngest grandchild. Educated at the most elite schools in England, including Eton, he was forced by his grandmother to become the Duke of Coburg in Germany.
Transformed overnight from British to German royalty, the course of his life was altered in ways he could never have imagined as he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He refused to fight against the British in WWI, but after the conflict, he was still stripped of his English titles. A year later, he lost his German titles as well, when Germany became a republic.
Depressed and disillusioned, Charles Edward turned to far right politics, which offered him a new sense of identity. The film explains how he became an enthusiastic supporter of the emerging Nazi Party and his role in helping Hitler rise to power.
How To Go To War: Raising Arms (9:00 p.m.)
This program, hosted by the BBC’s Saul David, details the less glamorous side of winning wars. It explains the vital art of supplying weapons to warriors, a necessary and often overlooked ingredient to battlefield success.
Packed full of surprising facts and new perspectives from key historical conflicts to the present day, Raising Arms explains how war commanders have found ways to expand and equip their soldiers for battle and the ingenious ways they have come up with to pay for the enormous effort.
Valentino's Ghost (10:00 p.m.)
Valentino’s Ghost has been called superb, courageous and disturbing. It exposes the ways in which America’s foreign policy agenda in the Middle East drives the U.S. media’s portrayals of Arabs and Muslims.
It lays bare the truths behind taboo subjects avoided by the mainstream American media, answering questions such as why they hate us, why we hate them and why the United States was attacked on September 11th.
Polls show that 46 percent of Americans hold negative views of Islam. Commentators including Robert Fisk, John Mearsheimer, Gore Vidal and Niall Ferguson reveal the media's role in perpetuating stereotypes about Arabs, Muslims and Islam and the lack of a national dialogue on these topics.
