The War Tapes

I've just caught up with The War Tapes - an extraordinary documentary filmed by three US Guardsmen in Iraq and produced by Deborah Scranton. It is the most authentic, and indirectly sympathetic, portrayal of life on the frontline in Iraq. See the trailer here.

Even better, watch Deborah Scranton talk through how she made the film and some of her experiences afterwards at TED. IN particular how she talks about the disconnection between the experiences of the soldiers, the public and the media.

It makes me think of the lacklustre public response to our own troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Comments

[Deborah Scranton]

Thank you so much for your post. Amplifying voices of those who go'outside the wire' everyday in our name remains one of my passions. I'm working on a new project now following 'The Surge'.

Send me an email, I'm also working on a blogging initiative that you might find interesting.

all the best,
Deborah Scranton
Director, THE WAR TAPES

[Mark Kraft]

The most difficult thing that I have faced in my work with soldiers has been reconciling my own strong personal thoughts about the illegal, corruption-inducing, Constitutionally-eroding nature of this conflict with those of how I can communicate with, develop trust and respect with, and properly express the feelings of soldiers who have served in Iraq.

Ultimately, this conflict is one of perspectives, and the soldiers certainly have a point as to how the news doesn't tell what happened from their perspective. At the "tree level", you see routine acts of bravery and courage, but if you back up to the "forest level", you see that the soldiers have been put in a horrible situation for the wrong reasons, where they just cannot win for losing, and that what the war is really doing is providing cover for the deaths and ethnic cleansing / ethnic sorting of millions of Iraqis. To the extent that this cleansing/sorting process evolves and leads to an eventual decline in Iraqi and Coalition fatalities, we call that progress. But it absolutely wasn't necessary progress.

I still write negative things on the war all the time, and I think doing so is very important, in that it's the best way to bring about the end to something which is fundamentally wrong. Ultimately, I believe that the truth about how fundamentally flawed this conflict is will bring soldiers home and help save lives. It will also help save our freedoms, in that it will help to repudiate the legal and moral infection that has occured in both our countries, where a substantial portion of the population believe that disregarding international law is okay, if the ends justify the means.

I strongly believe that the longterm damage to our countries, our freedoms, and our ability to positively influence the world through diplomacy, peaceful economic development, and cultural exchange will be far greater than the million or so people who will probably have died in this conflict once history has its final say.

I have great respect for soldiers, but the fact is that many, if not most soldiers still support the war, oftentimes for all the best and most noble of reasons. Fundamentally, when they're out there, they have an absolute need to believe that what they're doing will make a difference, that their friends didn't die in vain, and that the day-to-day horrors that happen around them are worth it on some larger level. I've seen several soldiers truely suffer because they were thousands of miles away from everything in their life that made it worth living, with things on shaky ground back at home, with depression and anger, because they simply could not believe in their mission anymore, so I can appreciate how hard that can be.

Ultimately, their leaders failed them, their fellow citizens failed to hold their leaders accountable, and the soldiers oftentimes believe -- quite justifiably -- that they have been largely forgotten.

And as long as they're deployed out there, fighting our wars, under significant restrictions on their communications to the extent that even asking a soldier "How are you?" and getting an honest answer is a potentially risky act for them, there's surprisingly little we can do to really change that fact.