The
Ground Truth: Iraq War
Veterans Speak Out
By Susan Van Haitsma
25 September, 2006
Dissidentvoice.org
On
Friday, September 15, the film, The Ground Truth, opened in selected
cities around the country, including Austin. The riveting documentary
directed by Patricia Foulkrod is scheduled to run for one week at the
Dobie Theatre. The film gives voice to young veterans of the Iraq war,
who speak candidly about the successive phases of their military experience:
recruitment, basic training, combat, re-entry into civilian society,
physical and psychological war injuries and the consequent realization
that their country is unprepared for the levels of support they really
need. Yellow car magnets and heroes' welcomes don't cut it.
The Ground Truth is rated
"R for disturbing violent content, and language," according
to its listing in the Austin American-Statesman. Most of the disturbing
violent content and language is contained in footage from basic training
and from the Iraq war. Drill instructors are shown dehumanizing recruits
as part of the process of training them to dehumanize the adversary.
Rare video footage from Iraq, accompanied by first-hand accounts from
soldiers featured in the film, reveal the ways their training to "Kill,
kill" leads them to target Iraqi civilians.
A film review of The Ground Truth in the Austin Chronicle includes the
reviewer's suggestion, "It would be a good idea to show Foulkrod's
movie nationwide on high school career days." As it happened, I
attended a local high school career fair the evening before the film
opened. Counseling staff at the school had invited Nonmilitary Options
for Youth to participate with a literature table along with the many
college and occupational trade representatives who were present. My
colleague and I set up our table near the Army and Marine recruiters
who came with their chin-up bar and give-away items.
One of the points made by the veterans interviewed in The Ground Truth
(including a former Marine recruiter) is that recruiters do not tend
to use the word "kill" when they talk to young people about
enlistment. The military recruiters I observed at the career fair encouraged
students under age 18 to display their physical strength on the chin-up
bar and to fill out cards with their contact information. The students
weren't told that the primary purpose of the military is to harness
their youthful energy for killing.
Materials at our Nonmilitary Options table did address killing and the
human costs of war. We invited students to consider signing cards that
read in bold letters, "I WILL NOT KILL." The postcards are
part of a youth-organized campaign sponsored by the international organization,
Fellowship of Reconciliation. The I Will Not Kill campaign gives young
people a way to document their beliefs about killing in war, not only
in case of a draft, but to encourage them to explore their own moral
values as they enter adulthood.
If The Ground Truth could have been shown as part of that high school
career night, the truths offered by the young veterans in the film would
have done much more than we could at our table to inform and enlighten
both students and recruiters about the realities of enlistment. Unfortunately,
the film is not likely to be shown in the school, partly because of
its 'R' rating, which is due precisely to the film's candid revelation
of the disturbing violence and language that is required to make students
into soldiers.
Included in AISD school regulations is the following statement: "Students
shall be informed that physical violence and threats of physical violence
as a means of addressing interpersonal conflict and discipline or control
are inappropriate and destructive." At the same time, military
recruitment in schools means that students are sought to join an institution
that relies on physical violence and threats of violence as a means
of addressing conflict, discipline and control. If military training
and combat is described accurately, those descriptions may be considered
too violent for minors to access, yet access to minors is what military
recruitment is all about. Such layers of cognitive dissonance become
part of the soldier's psychological burden described so honestly by
the young veterans in the film.
Students are deceived if ground truths about military training, war
and inadequate veteran care are withheld from them. And if images of
real war are inappropriate to display to young people, then it is inappropriate
to recruit young people to fight. The veterans who speak in The Ground
Truth, several of whom are only a few years out of high school themselves,
have undertaken a truth-telling mission. Supporting the troops means
listening to what they have to say.
Susan Van Haitsma is active with Nonmilitary Options
for Youth in Austin, TX, and can be reached at: [email protected].