Rules of Engagement

This was a night of intense documentary watching. I usually do that on Saturdays, but I didn't feel like doing any work tonight so I used the time for a good cause. One of the news headlines today was that the Italian journalist that was just released earlier today by the insurgents in Iraq, was shot and injured, and her bodyguard killed, by an American soldier at a checkpoint. Apparently the car driven by the Italian undercover cop was speeding towards the checkpoint and didn't follow the rules of engagement.

I am mentioning this because I watched 2 documentaries on PBS Frontline tonight. One of them is A Company of Soldiers. It follows the daily life of the Dog Company at the outskirts of Baghdad for a month during the operation on Fallujah last November. It is a must see, like any other FRONTLINE documentary. I don't know how much stuff they couldn't show, but what I have seen gave a pretty good indication of the situation on the ground. They have a scene exactly like the one in the news today: a car is approaching a roadblock, and the soldier has to make a split second decision. He fires a few shots in the air, and then his commander yells at him that the car crossed the friendly line, and so the guy opens up on the car that luckily stops abruptly. Now the car was beyond the line, so according to the rules of engagement the soldiers are supposed to anihilate it. Luckily the car backs up slowly.

The general feeling that I got about Iraq is that a handfull of bad guys are ruining everything for everybody. If the Americans are building a market the insurgent attacks start and they have to run after the bad guys, so the projects stop. Slowly though, I think the situation is moving in the right direction. Is it worth the life, blood, or tears of so many American kids, Iraqis and orphaned children? I think so, but who am I to decide on something this big...

The other documentary was The Soldier's Heart , which was the name given to post stress syndrome during WWII. This film is about soldiers who during or after deployment go through very intense emotions of fear, anger, or self-denial. The documentary looks at a few cases, one being about a soldier who hanged himself after coming back from Iraq. Apparently, 1 in every 6 soldiers suffers of this, but very few acknowledge it because they are ashamed of being called a "pussy" by their commanders. Although it has programs to "handle" the problem, the military doesn't even want to acknowledge it as being a problem. The military is about strength and the fact that service is voluntary leaves very little space of maneuvre for a poor soldier. Suffering of a panick attack when he shoots a peaceful women that looks like his mom is not OK. The purpose of the military is to win, and they do that by killing the enemy. By accepting that killing is not OK for some of the soldiers the military would defy it's own purpose: win the battle at any cost. It just sounds like a freezing cold argument but I have to agree with it. Unfortunately, when we talk about war, when life is on the line, there is not enough attention left for PTSD. Unless you are the awesome FRONTLINE.