esrosedotblog

No matter what you call it, there is a collateral damage from war that no one sees.

Now it is called some set of initials. PTSD. Post traumatic stress disorder.

It is still the same.

Today's film is about a young gay man who encounters a subject for a film project.

The "subject" turns out not only to be a real human being but also a member of a veteran's counseling group who is having a lot of difficulty.

The gayness is a sub-theme. A sort of closeted film. But it is obvious that the man's PTDS is related to the loss of a special friend in Iraq and a belief that he is responsible.

The film making soon takes a back seat to a unique relationship that we see grow and change in the film.

This is a hard movie to watch. It does not pull any punches.

The callow young man and the grizzled vet, all of thirty years old, is sweet and very nice to watch as it grows and then ends.

A 5 out of Netflix5. Not easy. Hard. Remember I told you before you went and saw it and got upset.

There are no reviews for this film as it went direct to DVD and no one wants to talk about it. But I will.

It was a colossal mistake to give this wonderful film this ironic name. It got buried in the ton of cartoon super hero films and got lost almost completely. I may be the only person to have bought the disc and actually watched the film.

No credit here just chance.

Labels: films, gay films, Iraq

The Iraq thing is never done.

Obama is bombing the north. And, the war continues at home from the usual quarters.

McCain Says Limited U.S. Strikes on Militants in Iraq Are Not Enough

John McCain has never met a war he didn't like. Seething is his default position. He lies in wait for opportunities to bang the drum.

In actual fact, I think that McCain is still festering over the fact that he was spurned in his run for President.

His campaign will never end.

He does not, evidently, see himself as a sore loser or a whiner. But he comes across that way.

It is hard to imagine a McCain presidency let alone two of them.

I am sure that he is too old to run again in '16 but that hasn't kept him down before.

The funny thing is that I actually like the guy. He has funny asides and somehow doesn't take himself all that seriously. But he is a dog with a bone on anything involving troops. It is his playing card. Being a POW has never left him. His bitterness over it is tangible.

He is still the guy in the picture.

As he seeks an opportune target for his shit, he finds the perfect target in Obama. Twice beaten by him, he is legitimized by the rivalry.

Besides, it keeps his name in the papers. An otherwise irrelevant old man. Just happens to have a history.

Labels: Iraq, McCain

EXCITING MESSAGE

Today's film was Paul Greengrass'

The Green Zone (2009)

with Matt Damon, Brendan Gleeson and Greg Kinnear.

We are in Iraq just a month after the shock and awe invasion. The WMD's have not shown up, the looting is in high gear, Brimmer has just started taking over the government and the US puppet, Ahmed Chilabi, has just arrived after 30 years out of the country. Two hours later he is out of business. It took awhile in real life.

Damon is in a WMD search unit and isn't finding any because the intel is faulty. As it turns out, the intel is faked. Gleeson becomes his CIA ally and, together, they piece together the events that led up to the debacle. Here they are, plotting away.

This is a thriller wrapped around the facts of the matter and it is interesting to watch how the action shows the confusion, wrong thinking and outright mendacity of the people in the Green Zone. And the infighting.

It is very good.

We are treated, ironically, to a video in the cafeteria of Bush going on the carrier to announce "mission accomplished".

And all the while there is a tightly directed chase movie including a hair raising night time raid where we see just about as little as the participants.

If this was an attempt to get the true story out through the Trojan Horse of a war thriller, it succeeds admirably.

I liked the film a lot and was on pins and needles throughout.

I don't think that they missed a beat. There is a lot of show and tell here. The almost tropical paradise mood in the Green Zone. The crush of the press and the eye to eye enmity between bureaucrats.

This is a perfect role for Damon who has this earnestness. His discovery that they are fucking with him is devastating but rather than pack it up, he runs a counter offensive against the lies.

The ending would be a lot more satisfying if we didn't know that the war went on and on and now is winding down in another year. They want us out of there just as most of them did at the beginning.

One more thing. I love Brendan Gleeson and to watch him struggle with an American accent (he wins most of the time) is a sight to behold. He has the flat back of the throat thing down cold but every once in awhile a burr creeps in.

I wouldn't mind seeing this again at all. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, Iraq

MEMORIALS

It is easy to forget about all the losses we have had in recent years.

To commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Iraq war, the NYTimes compiled these photos of the rooms of dead soldiers.

The Shrine Down the Hall--Soldier's Rooms

Their families had kept the rooms the way they were left.

One has the bed still turned down. Another has two dogs sleeping on the bed.

There are crowded rooms, messy rooms, impeccably neat rooms, boy's rooms, girl's rooms. The details show the life.

It is pretty hard to view these photos without a necessary lump in the throat or stinging eyes.

Labels: Iraq

DAY OF INFAMY

No one is making much of the fact that today is the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

I guess I won't either.

Except to say that Obama has very high ratings from the public on his Iraq policy.

Labels: Administration Obama, Iraq

FINALLY!

6 Years In, Troops Glimpse Real Path Out of Iraq

When you can see it on the ground it is real.

Change I can believe in.

Labels: Administration Obama, Iraq

SIGH OF RELIEF

I suppose there is too much pride involved to say that it is over but it is dwindling and has to be over soon whether the military formally agrees to 16 months or not.

Pointing to a New Era, U.S. Pulls Back as Iraqis Vote

The mere fact of Obama's disinterest in staying "the course", whatever that is, leads to action or non action and a withdrawal. What's in a name?

There is also a sudden disappearance of the term "war on terror". Gone. Not quite forgotten.

It was never a war on "terror". Who is that? What is that?

One more stupid bush meme gone in a flash.

So much depends on attitude and the Obama attitude is quickly being adopted whether it is said in so many words or not. This is at the center of his true leadership ability. The power of modeling attitude and outlook.

I think that is his style. He does not need the belly to belly "you lose, I win" crap of the bush years where even those who disagreed were enemies to be defeated. Friends no more.

A different time.

Labels: Administration Obama, Iraq

NOW THIS

The trip is going pretty well, I would say.

It is freaking the GOoPers out.

Major WH Blunder: Emails al-Maliki Story to Reporters

I liked the comment of the Republican advisor (anonymous) who says "We're Fucked".

At the bottom of this there is a vote. "Could this trip have started out any better"?

Yes

No

Only if he dragged Bin Laden out of his cave

I voted for the cave. But it is going to be a long trip.

Labels: Barack Obama, bushies, Iraq

IN MEMORIAM

The stories in here are wonderful and heartbreaking.

A side point. Look at the stories right in the beginning and then tell me that the immigrants are 'stealing' from us.

Profiling California's War Dead

500 kids.

Labels: Iraq

FIVE YEARS AND HE SAYS WE ARE WINNING

Labels: bush, Iraq

DISCLOSURE

I didn't mention that I am a member of MoveOn.org.

You can be too.

Click on.

The Betrayal theme goes on.

Labels: Iraq, politics

WHAT? COME AGAIN?

These are GOP Senators incidentally; Luger, Hagel and Warner. And of course, the new General to be shoved up front by the bushies. Remember Powell?

Labels: bushies, Iraq

MORE OF THE SAME

No surprises there.

Bushies' general with bushies' speech as bush prepares to go out with single minded purpose.

Paul Richter in the LA Times nailed it in this morning's analysis.

Bush policy to bequeath Iraq to successor

The talk in Washington on Monday was all about troop reductions, yet it also brought into sharp focus President Bush's plans to end his term with a strong U.S. military presence in Iraq and to leave tough decisions about ending the unpopular war to his successor.....

"Bush has found his exit strategy," said Kenneth M. Pollack, a former government Mideast specialist now at the Brookings Institution.......LAT

Labels: bush. bushies, Iraq

ALLEGORY

If you want a good parallel to the Petraeus / Congress affair, take a look at the

Rude Pundit's

entry for today. He doesn't have a permalink feature.

Like me he uses the free, no frills blogger.

Nevertheless, as always, it offers some good salty reading.

I do have to warn you that the named pundit is rude.

You are, incidentally, meant to click on the links as you read.

Otherwise, no allegory!

I'm not sure that it is an allegory.

Anyway.

Enjoy.

Labels: Iraq

ASTOUNDING

According to this

Americans Feel Military Is Best at Ending the War

only 5%

of Americans feel that the bushers can end the war.

Key quote:

Only 5 percent of Americans — a strikingly low number for a sitting president’s handling of such a dominant issue — said they most trusted the Bush administration to resolve the war, the poll found. Asked to choose among the administration, Congress and military commanders, 21 percent said they would most trust Congress and 68 percent expressed most trust in military commanders.......NYT

Talk about your crisis of confidence.

It is interesting that people also now align Petraeus with the bushers and have almost a 60% lack of confidence in his objectivity.

That means that some other generals who will also weigh in today, notably Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Pace will have more impact.

Stunning.

That 5% must really have their brains wired for conservatism. (see below)

Labels: bushies, Iraq, politics

PARTITION

The horrific dilemma of staying or leaving Iraq is that either solution gets us carnage. The ultimate solution to this dilemma may be already playing itself out by the people themselves.

More Iraqis Are Said to Flee Since Troop Increase

There is no question that if we leave there will be chaos. That point of no return was passed long ago.

Bush' stubborn refusal to explore options with Iran and Syria have isolated solutions to a few no-win options.

Only Senator Biden has said the obvious out loud.

The solution is a three way partition.

One region for Kurds, another for Sunnis and a third for Shiites.

Until now, that solution was believed to mean incredibly large dislocations.

But it would seem that the Iraqi people are voting with their feet.

The dislocation is occurring.

An unintended consequence of the surge is to drive people out of the heterogenous and dangerous neighborhoods to areas that are homogeneous and safe.

There is a good video with the article.

Labels: Iraq

ON THE GROUND

This is the NYTimes Op Ed that has to be causing major administration heartburn.

The truth from the ground and from the troops and not the report of some VIP walkthrough with a political agenda and a whole company of armed protection. Joe the Shmoe Lieberman for example.

The War As We Saw It

Labels: Iraq

WEBBS

We need more Democrats like Jim Webb and we need more visible families like Webb and his son.

Labels: Iraq, politics

LEFT AND RIGHT

I really like Dr. Ron Paul

Here he is doing a bi-pol-er interview with Jerome Armstrong and David All.

He has clarity.

I may not like some of this other positions but on Iraq and a few others I am 100%.

If I were a Republican, I would support him.

I always seem to gravitate to these plainspoken guys (who can't win).

Richardson against Paul.

Let's have a real election.

Labels: Iraq, politics

LIKE I TOLD YOU

White House Is Said to Debate ’08 Cut in Iraq Troops by 50%

It is the first indication that growing political pressure is forcing the White House to turn its attention to what happens after the current troop increase runs its course.

Which it will. If not September, January.

The Iraqi's are getting closer to telling us to get out.

Sadr was back yesterday pressing the point.

Shiite Cleric Ends Absence From Iraq With Fiery Speech

The pressure to get out is coming from both sides.

A sandwich.

Labels: bushies, Iraq