The War Tapes

Watched this movie last night, and it was fantastic if depressing. Some thoughts:

-The US soldiers profiled in this movie hate Halliburton, and are just as cynical about KBR's role in this war as any Nation or TAP reader.

-They are not, by and large, as cynical about the war overall - with the exception of one Lebanese-born soldier who, reflecting that Bush was likely to be re-elected, mutters "I guess Operation Iranian Freedom is coming soon."

-The other two soldiers basically seemed to agree that if America was in Iraq for oil and nothing else, that was okay by them. Indeed, one said something to the effect of "somebody other than Cheney better be getting some fucking money out of this war."

More broadly, I was saying to my father (who I saw the movie with) that while I believe Iraq will, in the largest sense, be a far more important strategic defeat for America than Vietnam, I also believe that Vietnam will remain far more traumatic for most Americans. There's a number of reasons for this, mainly the absence of a draft (so far!) and the structure of the modern military which limits impacts on the general public.

Aside from this movie, I haven't seen a very good cultural presentation of how this war is ruining lives, even when people come back (relatively) unharmed. Bizarrely, the most "popular" presentation of how awful this war is may very well come from the video for Green Day's When September Comes.