[Vision2020] Two "Must See" Telecasts About the Iraqi War

[Ted Moffett]

Tom et. al.

I was going to post today this story about the war in Iraq, but restrained
myself thinking the story too depressing and upsetting...

I'm over my polite post limit today, but still...anyone who understands the
reality of war knows that this sort of atrocity happens far more often than
is documented or reported.  US soldiers in Iraq are in an impossible
situation, where they can face death from any stranger they might encounter
who may be a suicide bomber, yet are expected to show restraint towards Iraq
civilians at the same time:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12838343/

Ted Moffett



On 5/19/06, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings Visionaires -
>
> There are two telecasts being shown in the near future that I consider
> MUST
> SEE telecasts concerning the Iraqi War.
>
> Thursday (May 25, 2006), 9:00 PM (A&E, Adelphia Channel 33):  "Combat
> Diaries: The Marines of Lima Company"
>
> Sunday (May 21, 2006) and throughout June (HBO): "Baghdad ER"
>
> Both shows are unedited and what I would consider to be "wake up calls"
> for
> those who blindly support George Bush's "Stay the Course" tactics.
>
> Articles from the Army Times concerning each of these is posted below.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A&E to air raw, moving portrait of 'Lucky' Marines
>
> By Rob Colenso Jr.
> Times staff writer
>
> You probably remember the stories of "Lucky Lima."
>
> The company from 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, a Reserve outfit out of
> Columbus, Ohio, deployed to Iraq in March 2005 with 184 Marines, the last
> of
> nine Marine Corps Reserve infantry battalions to be called up for war.
>
> By the end of its seven-month tour, about one in three leathernecks with
> the
> company had been killed or wounded.
>
> In all, 59 Purple Hearts were awarded to Lima Marines, 23 of them
> posthumously. The company's collective losses galvanized the Columbus
> community of Brook Park - and the nation as a whole.
>
> You may have heard about the company's role in Operation Spear in
> Karabilah,
> a city near the Syrian border that had become a base of operations for
> foreign fighters.
>
> And you probably saw the smoking aftermath of the amphibious assault
> vehicle
> that hit a roadside explosive so massive that the 23-ton vehicle flipped
> onto its back and all 11 Lima Company leathernecks inside were killed.
>
> It's easy to remember the painful things - the images from the nightly
> news
> don't really go away. But you've never seen them through the eyes of the
> Marines who fought there.
>
> Until now.
>
> A new A&E Network documentary set to air May 25, "Combat Diary: The
> Marines
> of Lima Company," gives viewers a window into their world, largely through
> video and photos shot by the Marines themselves. As Sgt. Steve Hicks,
> platoon sergeant for Lima's 3rd Platoon, puts it at the start of the
> documentary: "Everybody had a camera."
>
> And the Marines photographed everything. From pizza-eating contests in
> their
> barracks at Iraq's Haditha Dam to the aftermath of the Aug. 3 explosion
> that
> flipped the assault vehicle, the Marines saw - and filmed - it all.
>
> "The Marines of Lima Company never intended this footage to be made
> public,"
> said Michael Epstein, who directed and produced the film for Viewfinder
> Productions. "It's vastly different than footage you see from embedded
> reporters - or even footage shot with the intent of later being folded
> into
> a film. This is one company's unfiltered experience of war."
>
> Epstein's spare, unadorned production allows the Marines to tell their own
> tales of success, frustration and loss. Follow-up interviews after the
> battalion's return from Iraq and interviews with the parents and spouses
> of
> Marines killed in combat help bring richness and depth to the combat
> footage.
>
> In one scene, a camera follows Stephanie Derga to a bar in the Columbus
> area. Her son, Cpl. Dustin Derga, 24, was killed May 8, 2005, shot in the
> back with an armor-piercing round during Operation Matador on the
> Iraq-Syria
> border. The bar is a popular hangout for Lima Company's Marines - they
> spend
> more time with one another than they do with civilians now that they're
> back
> from war - and Derga prefers to spend time with them as well.
>
> At the start of the documentary, Lance Cpl. Trevor Smith tells the viewer,
> "I don't really talk to people about what happened."
>
> But throughout, it becomes clear that the Marines want to tell their
> story,
> to be remembered as more than "the company that lost so many Marines."
> They
> talk of the relationships they built with Iraqi soldiers, moving from
> early
> skepticism to loose bonds of friendship in the crucible of combat.
>
> They cite the improved Iraqi turnout between the two elections that
> bracketed their seven-month deployment, noting that the rise in
> participation is thanks, at least in part, to their efforts during that
> long
> summer.
>
> "I just want people to remember them for what they did, not because they
> died," Smith says as the documentary draws to its close.
>
> "Combat Diary" doesn't explore the details of the battles Lima Company
> fought to the same depth that it does the stories of the company's wounded
> and fallen. But it does provide a stark, honest and gripping portrait of
> idealism tempered by the pain of brothers lost in war.
>
> "Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company" airs at 9 p.m. Eastern time
> May
> 25 on the A&E Network.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 'Know what to expect' from HBO movie, viewers warned
>
> By Kelly Kennedy
> Times staff writer
>
> An HBO documentary about an Army hospital in Iraq is so graphic, some
> brass
> concluded, that they warned soldiers to be careful watching it. Other Army
> leaders invited to an advance screening stayed away.
>
> Some soldiers and family members associated with "Baghdad ER," however,
> told
> Army Times they found value in the war-zone reality that the documentary
> portrays. One mother who watched her son die in the documentary said the
> film allowed her to see the people who cared for him in his very last
> moments.
>
> The movie, which debuts Sunday, features 62 minutes of gore, anguish and
> death as the soldiers of the 86th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort
> Campbell, Ky., wade through the wounded of Baghdad in the spring and
> summer
> of 2005. It will air on HBO throughout the month of June.
>
> "It's very gritty," Army spokesman Paul Boyce said. "It's very realistic.
> We
> want to make sure folks know what to expect. We're not telling people,
> 'Don't watch.'"
>
> Boyce, who viewed the May 17 screening of the documentary at the National
> Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., said it also shows the
> heroism of the medical personnel treating those wounded in the combat
> zone.
>
> "It profiles their daily performances," Boyce said, "and their compassion
> is
> absolutely inspirational."
>
> Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley said in a May 9 memo that the film "shows the ravages
> and anguishes of war" and may cause some who have served in Iraq to
> "experience some symptoms of post-traumatic stress, such as flashbacks or
> nightmares."
>
>
> Family members who watch it may also have emotional reactions such as
> anxiety, said Kiley, who heads the Army Medical Command at Fort Sam
> Houston,
> Texas.
>
> Kiley asked that commanders advise their units of the film's release date
> and that they be aware that soldiers may seek comfort or treatment after
> viewing it. He also asked commanders to strongly consider extending the
> hours of support personnel, such as chaplains and mental health
> counselors.
>
> Col. Casper Jones, commander of the 86th, said he thought the film was a
> well-done, accurate portrayal of what his soldiers did in Baghdad. For
> him,
> the grueling scenes are only a millisecond of his memories.
>
> "What you see in this documentary is about 1/25th of the shock value of
> what
> you actually see and visualize," he said. "I certainly didn't see anything
> I'd forgotten."
>
> The film shows soldiers helping each other, asking about teammates
> involved
> in an attack, making jokes above their own disintegrated limbs, and
> leaning
> on the hospital staff who saved their lives.
>
> Jones watched it with his troops during an advance screening.
>
> They weren't shocked or thrown into an "emotional tailspin" after watching
> the program, Jones said. And it may help them realize what they've
> accomplished and better explain their mission to family members and
> friends.
>
> "The American people should be very proud of the medical team that's right
> there at the front lines to ensure the soldiers can get back to their
> families," he said. "I certainly hope that when my mother, father and
> sister
> see this they'll have an appreciation of what we did over there."
>
> Sgt. Jeffrey Beltran of Fort Riley, Kan., said he remembered the day HBO
> asked him if they could film him soon after a roadside bomb destroyed his
> knee Memorial Day weekend 2005.
>
> His face - and his wounds - flash across the screen as he asks a colonel
> if
> he has any beer. Then again as medics tell him his men all survived after
> an
> IED blew his Humvee in half. And again as the medical staff work to
> comfort
> him as they rebuild his knee.
>
> "It showed to every extent what the medical professional has done helping
> the wounded soldiers," he said. "It's very emotional and traumatic to see
> yourself on TV talking to doctors."
>
> he said the film helped him because he got to see all that happened around
> him that he wasn't aware of at the time. "I remembered two snapshots of
> what
> I'd seen in a dream," he said. "I understand now fully the whole process."
>
> The hardest part to watch, he said, was when a young Marine, Lance Cpl.
> Robert Mininger, 21, died.
>
> Mininger's mother, Paula Zwillinger, watched the film Tuesday with the
> 86th.
>
> "It's a pain a mother goes through - losing a child to war," she said.
> "Seeing it, it brings peace knowing that he wasn't alone. He had another
> Marine by his side. He was in good care."
>
> When Mininger died last June, his mother did not know about the HBO
> documentary. A director called her five months later.
>
> "Five months down the road, I'm still very much in the grieving process,"
> she said. "To hear that there's a video that could put me by my son's
> bedside - as a parent, you can't walk away from that."
>
> And HBO let her help with the editing process.
>
> "I'm not ready to show 100 percent of the footage," she said.
>
> It was important to let the world see what the soldiers did for her son,
> she
> said. "As a lay person, you can't understand," she said. "Two soldiers
> holding hands on a stretcher and crying together.... There's nothing that
> can compare to that."
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> t hansen-moore
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the
> tranquil
> and steady dedication of a lifetime."
>
> --Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
>
>
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