Update #6 September 15 - Fundraiser for Remember Fallujah documentary In a previous update, I reviewed all (or so I thought) of documentaries that had been done on the conflict in Fallujah, but I overlooked one important documentary. This documentary, The November War, just came out this summer. It was done by another veteran of the 2nd siege of Fallujah, and it tells the story of a single day of fighting from the perspectives of the men from his former platoon. The testimony given by these veterans is gripping. The trauma that they still carry with them is evident in their stares, the pauses in their speech, and the tension in their bodies as they tell their story. This is a heart-wrenching documentary about what these men endured and the friends they lost. I think it would be hard for anyone who watches this to not feel sympathy for them. However, what this documentary is not about is Fallujans and how the 2nd siege of Fallujah effected them. In fact, I only noticed one mention of civilians, when one veteran commented that they had all evacuated the city. This is not true. The Red Cross estimated that up to 50,000 civilians were trapped in Fallujah at the time of the 2nd siege. And the US military was not allowing military aged males (defined very loosely as between 15 and 55 years of age) to flee the city, regardless of whether there was any evidence that they were resistance fighters or not. But this is not an uncommon belief amongst the Marines in Fallujah at that time. I remember that my command told us that all the civilians had left the city and that only combatants remained. In a way, this documentary is apolitical and ahistorical. None of the stated justifications for the 2nd siege or any of the events that led up to it are mentioned. The viewer is just dropped into this single day of combat with no background knowledge and no context. On the other hand, the story is framed in a particular ideology. The resistance fighters are referred to as “terrorists” and “insurgents”. The documentary begins with commentary by one of the veterans that “freedom isn’t free”. And there is a lot of discussion about the Marines that died, what they believed in, and what they think their friends died for. What can we expect the viewer to take from this? The message seems to be that these veterans suffered tremendously for a good cause. There isn’t even a hint that harm came to anyone but them. For me, this documentary represents everything that made me want to make the documentary that I’m making now. I wanted to fight against this version of the story of Fallujah that puts all the focus on the Marines and their alleged heroism and sacrifices, and ignores the historical context and the perspectives of Fallujans. I wanted to offer a balance of facts and perspectives that to me seemed crucial for Americans to know about. I felt that there was no way Americans could understand our current foreign policy without knowing about what we did to Fallujah. And this couldn’t be truer with the current debate over Syria. Let me be clear, that I’m not against these veterans telling their stories. It seemed like a very therapeutic thing for them, and I wouldn’t want to take that away. However, their stories need to be balanced with the stories of Fallujans. Their recollection of what was told to them by their command needs to be balanced with documented facts. And the historical context needs to be made clear. The November War discusses the horrors of war. But when the mission is presumed to be just, as it is in this documentary, then the more horrible the war becomes, the more heroic the soldiers became as a result. Ultimately, this documentary glorifies these Marines and their mission. I believe that documentaries, films, and books of this sort do more harm than good. When I enlisted at 18, I believed in the heroism of the US military, because I had absorbed similar movies, documentaries, and books when I was a kid. Stories of this sort do little to educate the next generation and to keep them from fighting the future wars for empire. Instead it just reenforces common misconceptions about the automatic glory, heroism, righteousness of fighting wars for America, regardless of the facts, irrespective of the historical context. Some say that truth is the first casualty of war. But in fact, the truth is sacrificed before the war even begins. The truth is killed off in our cultural depictions of war. This what I hope that my documentary will do differently. " hummusforthought/2013/09/10/fundraiser-for-remember-fallujah-documentary/
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 23:35:52 +0000
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