A truthful look at things in Iraq

[George Bellefontaine]

I rented GUNNER PALACE over the weekend. It's a 90 minute documentary showing the day to day lives of US soldiers of the 2/3 Field Artillery in Baghdad. It covers a period between 2003 and 2004 when the war is supposed to be over, according to President Bush. Try to tell that to these brave young men and women who are risking their lives every day. The real danger of it all is closely linked to treachery. Early in the film a young Iraqi is shown happily hobnobbing with the troops as he works with them as an interpreter. Later this fellow is arrested for providing vital information to insurgents. Then there are the Iraqi's who are really there to help bring peace and stability to their country and like the US combat soldiers, their lives are also at risk. In fact some of the people featured in this documentary were killed after the filming, this included both US and Iraqis, and when you read their names in the credits, you are made that much more aware of the horror of it all.

This isn't a pleasant film to watch, but it takes you from the comfort and safety of your home and dumps you in the middle of a dangerous mess.

The PQ is documentary style so don't expect much. The soundtrack is available with 5.1 and there are a few scenes where that came in handy. In my opinion, this is a must see film for everyone.

After watching Gunner Palace I felt the courageous young men and women serving in Iraq deserve a slew of medals for just being there. God bless and protect them.

[Josh Wilken]

George,

I haven't seen the documentary you review here, but having spent a year in Iraq during the same time period as a combat engineer in the Fallujah / Ramadi area a lot of your comments resonate with my experience.

One thing I've noticed since my return is that most people's understanding of the situation is defined by the 5-minute treatment the media gives it. For the most part people are very appreciative but also very averse to truly digging into the whats and whys of the situation. Its just too easy to ignore it when for the most part our lives here in the States are very comfortable.

I'm not trying to demonize the media, they are an entertainment medium for the most part and have to cater to their audience's desires.

Its a truly complex environment over there - both worse and better than those 5-minute soundbytes are able to convey. I could go on for pages with examples.

Regardless of where you stand on the political issues I would highly recommend stepping out of your comfort zone for an hour and learning as much about the situation as you can - we're going to be there for a while, and its possible the American public will have to make decisions to pursue similar committments elsewhere in the world. We need to be informed about what that entails.

It sounds like what George has reviewed here may be a good place to start.

(CPT) Josh Wilken

[David Meek]

Hi Josh, welcome to The Guide. :welcome:

Now that Gunner Palace has been released, it's way up on my list to be rented. Now if I could just find a couple of more hours each day. . . . :

I truly wish we could get the truth about what's going on. But where? Our mainstream news is just as biased in its own way as that coming out of Al Jezeera. Michael Moore? Uh no. The BBC maybe? What do you think? I can find Iraq stories all over the 'Net, but there's a real problem with verifying the accuracy of the material.

P. S. I'm glad you made it out of there.

[George Bellefontaine]

I'll echo what Tex Meek said, I'm glad you made it out safe, Capt. Wilken. As far as what is really going on in Iraq, well you know, sir, because you were there. For the rest of us, as you stated earlier, Gunner Palace is a good place to start. It certainly opened my eyes.

[Josh Wilken]

Excellent questions. Realize that over there now the media is VERY confined - very few correspondants actually roll out with troops, most take reports from the military and/or local govt officials and repackage.

During my stay we had some local small town papers come and cover us - we saw them A LOT more often than reporters from the major affiliates. I wonder who was getting the better coverage?? Those were some brave folks, worth our respect.

Its hard to ping the mainstream media- they have to make their story on Iraq fit in the 5 minute window between the weather, sports, entertainment, and the latest hijinks by Michael Jackson . Like I said before they are in the entertainment industry 99% of the time. Only in the event of a major catashtophe (like 9/11) do they rise above entertainment and really do in-depth coverage.

It was quite surreal being over there and having access to the major media outlets - we were able after the first 6 months to get all the major media outlets (CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC) and also had fairly decent access to the internet. In some very bizarre cases I was in a conflict and then got to watch it a few hours or days later on TV. For the most part the media was trying, but without being able to enter really hostile areas it was mainly them taking the official military reports and sending them on. Its amazing how innaccurate some of them were, and some of them were "we heard some explosions from over there". Its very frustrating to hear political spin from both sides - the Bush admin painting a rosy picture and some extreme left wings painting that the sky is falling.

I was often asked the same questions of friends and family "which news is best" and the answer was "none" - realize this is a combat zone and accurate information is almost impossible to get in real-time, or at least in time for the media to go to press and not be behind. The best way to to read it all, ignore most of the details, and try to gain a "general" view from it all.

The one thing the media does a pretty poor job of is capturing the voice of the Iraqis - this is due to the language barrier and the security element noted above, also Iraqi's tendancy to avoid American media as they are targets (and so are Iraqis for talking to American media). This, in my opinion, is what we are missing the most.

When I was there I felt I had a pretty good idea of the whole picture of what was going on - now that I'm back in the US I find myself in the same boat as everyone else, and yes, its frustrating.

~Josh

To those "over there" who may get the random chance to visit this forum, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

[David Meek]

To those "over there" who may get the random chance to visit this forum, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Mine too, Josh. Mine too. . . .