The Ground Truth
The Ground Truth is an amazing film. Along with Meredith and Elizabeth, I attended a special viewing for members of congress, and anti-war DC activists at the Library of Congress last night. Introduced by the progressive caucus co-chairs Rep. Lynn Woolsey and Rep. Barbara Lee, the film proved to be a moving documentary of the journey of Soldiers deployed to Iraq. Told by the soldiers themselves, the film followed them from recruitment, training, deployment, and finally through their return home. It was a chilling story.
It was amazing to me how effective our military is at taking young men and women and turning them into warriors... into killers. It was equally amazing how inept our military is at turning those warriors back into civilians once their deployment is done.
These soldiers signed up to be heroes, to defend our country, and to bring freedom to the world. But while in Iraq they find themselves in situations where the enemy is not clear, where innocent civilians often get caught in the crossfire, where their bullets too often cause civilians suffering and not security. Returning from that brutal world, they often feel more like monsters than like heroes. Their families do not understand, their communities do not understand, nobody wants to hear the stories of sadness, violence, and tragedy, they simply want to praise these returned soldiers as heroes. This disconnect between community expectations and the feelings within these soldiers’ hearts cause psychological problems that the military is utterly inadequate at addressing.
The soldiers are given a piece of paper when they get off the plane asking if they suffer from PTSD or any other psychological problems... if they check yes, they stay at the base. If they check no, they can go home with their families. Everyone checks no. The military does not follow up on these soldiers returned home. The soldiers themselves often don't seek help until something terrible happens. Until their marriage dissolves, until they wind up in jail, until they destroy their possessions, until suicidal thoughts drive them to a therapist... for some those suicidal thoughts turn into action. These soldiers do not end up in the injured or causality reports, but it is the war that has created that suffering, and it will continue to do so every day that it continues.
The talk about the war in DC is so stunted and shallow that it was hard to connect it with the lives of these soldiers. Whether or not we "stay the course" or "cut and run" we must address humanity. We are dealing with issues of life and death. We are training young men and women to become instinctual killers, we are reprogramming them to kill. Not because they are enraged, but because someone is approaching their vehicle and does not stop when ordered to, because fire is coming from a crowd of people and it is impossible to identify who exactly is shooting so the whole crowd gets shot at, because if they don't kill there is a good chance they will be killed. This is the reality of a soldier in Iraq.
It may be impossible for me to understand a war without having ever served in one, but I am able to understand that this war is both ending and ruining lives. It is an utter disaster. Even if a stable and democratic Iraq emerges it will have a foundation of death, destruction and lies. It is a difficult foundation on which to build, let us hope that no nation will ever have to face such an ugly present as the one Iraq faces today. Let us hope that soldiers will one day receive the REAL support they need when returning home from the tragedy of war. Let us hope that all Americans will put themselves in the boots of soldiers or the shoes of Iraqi Children and reevaluate what is really at stake in this war. Let us hope, always.
For more info on the film visit http://thegroundtruth.net.
It was amazing to me how effective our military is at taking young men and women and turning them into warriors... into killers. It was equally amazing how inept our military is at turning those warriors back into civilians once their deployment is done.
These soldiers signed up to be heroes, to defend our country, and to bring freedom to the world. But while in Iraq they find themselves in situations where the enemy is not clear, where innocent civilians often get caught in the crossfire, where their bullets too often cause civilians suffering and not security. Returning from that brutal world, they often feel more like monsters than like heroes. Their families do not understand, their communities do not understand, nobody wants to hear the stories of sadness, violence, and tragedy, they simply want to praise these returned soldiers as heroes. This disconnect between community expectations and the feelings within these soldiers’ hearts cause psychological problems that the military is utterly inadequate at addressing.
The soldiers are given a piece of paper when they get off the plane asking if they suffer from PTSD or any other psychological problems... if they check yes, they stay at the base. If they check no, they can go home with their families. Everyone checks no. The military does not follow up on these soldiers returned home. The soldiers themselves often don't seek help until something terrible happens. Until their marriage dissolves, until they wind up in jail, until they destroy their possessions, until suicidal thoughts drive them to a therapist... for some those suicidal thoughts turn into action. These soldiers do not end up in the injured or causality reports, but it is the war that has created that suffering, and it will continue to do so every day that it continues.
The talk about the war in DC is so stunted and shallow that it was hard to connect it with the lives of these soldiers. Whether or not we "stay the course" or "cut and run" we must address humanity. We are dealing with issues of life and death. We are training young men and women to become instinctual killers, we are reprogramming them to kill. Not because they are enraged, but because someone is approaching their vehicle and does not stop when ordered to, because fire is coming from a crowd of people and it is impossible to identify who exactly is shooting so the whole crowd gets shot at, because if they don't kill there is a good chance they will be killed. This is the reality of a soldier in Iraq.
It may be impossible for me to understand a war without having ever served in one, but I am able to understand that this war is both ending and ruining lives. It is an utter disaster. Even if a stable and democratic Iraq emerges it will have a foundation of death, destruction and lies. It is a difficult foundation on which to build, let us hope that no nation will ever have to face such an ugly present as the one Iraq faces today. Let us hope that soldiers will one day receive the REAL support they need when returning home from the tragedy of war. Let us hope that all Americans will put themselves in the boots of soldiers or the shoes of Iraqi Children and reevaluate what is really at stake in this war. Let us hope, always.
For more info on the film visit http://thegroundtruth.net.
posted by Adam G. Gerhardstein at 11:46 AM
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