06.05.11
Any war movie or book written about this is one guaranteed to have no audience
From the wires, on the 101st Airborne’s withdrawal from Afghanistan:
“It is very hard to see change,” said Capt. Tye Reedy. “It was very hard to get that across to my soldiers.”
Major General John F. Campbell described … losses in military lingo. “We had some very, very kinetic events,” he said after arriving home at Fort Campbell. But he said the hardships bonded the troops in an indelible way.
Very, very kinetic events.
One week after Memorial Day, DD notes that on AMC that weekend was dedicated to a loop of the movies Midway, Patton and The Longest Day, the latter which featured a running time, with commercials, of four hours.
Today’s endless counterinsurgency battles couldn’t be farther from them in subject matter.
They will generate books that nobody but journalists and the families of those who were there will read. If they make it to the occasional movie, they will generate some critical praise but have no star power, no box office and little if any public interest. (Like the most recent, The Battle for Marjah. Incidentally, that review was read thousands of times, generating as little enthusiasm in Facebook “likes” as the documentary then passing into the oblivion. Americans don’t even like to read the truth about documentaries on the Forever War.)
Here’s another quick framing question.
Can you even remember the title of HBO’s serial dramatization of the Iraq War? Didn’t think so. (See bottom for answer.)
Our national paradox, dripping in cynicism and marinated in bad faith, is one in which the military industrial complex has been so successful at removing the average citizen’s involvement in the Forever War, only complete indifference to it, along with a weird guilt-tripped reflexive genuflection to soldiering on holidays, remains.
Answer to HBO serial on Iraq War question: Generation Kill. Yes, what everyone wanted to watch was a movie on the first two weeks of a war launched on frauds five years after all the bunting from our Mission Accomplished moment had blown away.
HBO wasn’t running it over the Memorial Day weekend.