The Worst War Movie Everyone Should See
i just got home from the Ojai Film Society's screening of "The War Tapes", in which the premise is that several members of the New Hampshire Army National Guard accept mini-cams to carry with them for the year that they'll be deployed in Iraq. it's a gritty, foul-mouthed, confusing, and beautifully insightful look at the realities of war - not just THIS war. it's disgustingly real, and it's the worst war movie i've ever seen, which is why i think everyone should see it.
i'm older than one of the young men by two years, though i'm still draft-able. he joined the National Guard to get money for college. another one's from Lebanon, and speaks Arabic. he joined to travel. another is a very loving father who wants to "nuke the whole damn country" (Iraq). the ironies and realities of their situation are not lost on them...these guys are smart, and funny. most of them realize that KBR/Halliburton is there to make money, and that THEY are there to make sure that happens. they know there's a heirarchy being created for the value of human lives (Halliburton hires TCN's - Third Country Nationals, who could be from anywhere but are in Iraq to work - to drive the convoy trucks that are damaged and have no windshields, because convoy trucks are an even hotter target than Humvees). they dont seem to see the democracy in guarding the "shit-water trucks" that drive out into the desert to dump our American wastes. they dont know where "major combat operations in Iraq have ended". the only "free" Iraqis they see are the dead ones.
this film is beautiful for the brief, shining moments of painful truth and clarity. if you can stomach the burnt and exploded bodies and the bone-jarring sounds of heavy-caliber gunfire and the tears of the women they left behind, they're worth waiting for. but i hated my own thoughts and my own confusion. there were times when i HATED soldiers and i HATED military and government. i dont want to think that way, and usually i dont. i dont want to hate anything, and usually i dont. these young men seem bound to some culturally-engineered notion of duty, honor, and loyalty. they KNOW that they're there because we want to drive bigger and bigger SUV's over here, yet they still go.
it is said that war will end when men refuse to fight. i wish they felt empowered to refuse, because it seems if they did, a lot of them would.
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Comments (2)
Taxpayers in Congressional District 24 (Gallegly) will pay $964.7 million for the cost of war in Iraq. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
- 400,112 People with Health Care or
- 15,005 Elementary School Teachers or
- 113,999 Head Start Places for Children or
- 601,802 Children with Health Care or
- 5,625 Affordable Housing Units or
- 105 New Elementary Schools or
- 183,759 Scholarships for University Students or
- 14,730 Music and Arts Teachers or
- 17,730 Public Safety Officers or
- 2,800,968 Homes with Renewable Electricity or
- 14,389 Port Container Inspectors
source: http://database.nationalpriorities.org/
Comment #1 Posted by: Tyler | August 28, 2006 09:57 AM
since so many people join the military for travel and college money, i propose two federal programs:
1. issue travel vouchers in exchange for community service, for graduating high school or college, and for working within the same company for a certain amount of time. make vouchers honored by any and every travel agent or trip-booking site.
2. invent some kind of revolutionary program wherein the federal government subsidizes the cost of college. wait, aren't we supposed to have that already?
Comment #2 Posted by: evan | August 30, 2006 07:32 AM