I saw this documentary, The War Tapes a few days ago and needed a bit of time to digest all the potent images and information.
The producers gave cameras to 3 men who were leaving for Iraq for 1 year from the New Hampshire National Guard. The three men are very different yet share much in common. Those differences and the commonalities make for very interesting viewing. Iraq makes for a hellish setting to watch these things play out. The war scenes are as visceral as you might expect them to be as the film was shot from March 2004 and the 12 months that followed. This period also encompasses the Presidential elections.
One of the men is a self-described ‘political junkie’ who is highly critical of Bush yet loves the life of a soldier. He came to the US from Lebanon as a young boy and is quite intelligent. He is also the only one who speaks Arabic which changes the way he interacts with the Iraqi’s as opposed to his fellow soldiers. Another man leaves a wife and 2 children and is the most conservative of the group. At the end of the film he is the one most adamant about never returning again and is very disillusioned with what is happening there. The third man is single but has a girlfriend and he keeps his sense of humor throughout the tour but comes home with a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis that he refuses to be treated for.
There are many moments of cameraderie that are wonderful to watch as the soldiers support each other and bust each others chops. They rely on each other to get through the experience yet the camera catches them when they return at the end of their day and seem shell shocked trying to process once back in their quarters. We also see their families as they call and receive letters from them and again when they return home. The families are quite honest in their comments on how much these men have changed by what they have experienced.
On the upsetting side are many of the remarks, from disregard for Iraqi’s to statements like ‘blowing up the whole country’ (seriously) if we can’t win there. The young soldier who speaks Arabic tells of refusing to translate for other soldiers when a man desperately needs to take his young child across the road to the hospital. There is no reason that he can see why they can’t cross but their orders are to keep locals on that side of the road. He is so incensed he tells them to deal with it themselves because he is disgusted with the senselessness of it. He doesn’t understand why we aren’t really helping the people who live there.
It is wonderful to see one of the soldiers completely fed up with Kellog Brown and Root (i.e. Halliburton) and Cheney’s helping his old buddies to control everything in sight. He tells a story that KBR makes about 28 (i think) dollars per plate of food and most soldiers take a second plate to put on top to keep it warm, thus KBR makes 56 dollars for a plate of grub. He wants us to know this is where our tax dollars go. Another thing that upset one of them is the way KBR employees are treated as opposed to foreign nationals there. The KBR folks are given first class vehicles and the foreign nationals who do the same job are given vehicles to drive with no windsheilds and sometimes no doors with virtually no protection if they encounter an IED.
I recommend everyone see this film, it’s the closest to a first hand experience that all but the 150,000 troops and their immediate families will see. It makes the MSM news look as anemic as it is. You will find yourself laughing, crying, outraged and moved, in other words the whole enchilada that is our occupation of Iraq. Be sure to go to the link above and watch the trailer.
UPDATE– The producer of The War Tapes will be on Scarborough on MSNBC tonight at 9pm EST
