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Should We Keep the Politics Out? Comments on "Gunner Palace" Screening Last Night
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Thursday, Feb 17 2005, 3:03PM
SPC Stuart Wilf is a character that I'm going to have a hard time forgetting. He was one of the soldiers profiled in the documentary, Gunner Palace, soon to be released across the country. He's from Colorado Springs -- and might be President someday.
Wilf was a kid -- joined the military out of high school -- and is clearly into video games, hard-grinding electric rock, and having fun times. By the end of the film, he is far more sober about everything -- and he and his fellow gunners are counting the days to get out of the military and making us much of the hell hole they are in as they can -- with their improv rap and the occasional party in Uday Hussein's former palace.
The New America Foundation and The Washington Note hosted a rather well-attended screening of Gunner Palace last night and invited about 400 wonkish friends and journalists to see it. This was my second time.
The first time through I thought what I was seeing was a collage of day-in-the-life vignettes of young kids with guns who were way over their heads in the complex culture of good and bad Iraq. But this time, I tried to watch the film as if I were a strong proponent of the war.
Michael Tucker, the Director, has an interesting product in this film because I'm convinced that while he is giving his viewers insights into the realities of soldiers who are on the front-line patrolling nasty Baghdad neighborhoods, those who see this film will see their biases reinforced. With my head wired to be a pro-Bush, pro-war American, I saw brave soldiers doing what needed to be done for an idealism worth dying for (and some of them did indeed die).
But as someone opposed to this war from the beginning, I saw a clash of cultures and objectives that was never going to be softened and an enormous chasm between troops who were heavy in armour and guns and the Iraqi population heavy in complexity, religion, and opaque social norms. I felt terrible for some of the Iraqis in this film whose homes were destroyed when the soldiers had to break in -- but you could see in their eyes a powerful sense of disdain for the Americans and a confidence that the Iraqis, no matter what their plight, would be there long after the Americans were gone.
There were Iraqis arrested in this film for suspected bomb-making and terror-cell financing and sent off to Abu Ghraib. Michael Tucker documents that no evidence was found in one of these cases -- and yet those arrested, including a self-identified Iraqi journalist, were sent off to Saddam Hussein's former evil prison -- one that America made no less evil.
One really sees the insanity and fragility of our presence in Iraq. The soldiers -- for whom I have enormous respect -- are there on the front line not knowing what their objectives are anymore. My sense is that most of them don't know why we are there anymore, and according to one soldier who appeared in the film and spoke afterword, 8 out of 10 soldiers who can get out of the service are leaving.
To be fair, we had another recently returned soldier in the audience who was a strong advocate for our presence there and thought that the CA-units (civil authority units) on our side were doing great things for the communities in which they worked but that there was little recognition of this.
After the screening, I asked Michael Tucker, the producer and director of the film and the one who embedded himself in the lives and circumstances of these particular soldiers, about the disconnect he felt between Washington policymakers and pundits and the story he was helping to tell on the film. He reported, as he has elsewhere around the country, that he wanted to "keep the politics out of the film and just show things as they were."
Seeing things as they were was enough to convince me that success is going to be extremely difficult to achieve there -- and after thousands of lives lost and after spending nearly $12,000 per Iraqi on this invasion and occupation -- one wonders what success, if achievable, will cost in lives and treasure.
But the two highlights of the evening for me were meeting former Captain Jonathan Powers and former 1st Lietenant Brady van Engelen. Both of these gentlemen were part of the unit that Gunner Palace profiled. Powers appears in the movie -- and I think, though am not sure, that Engelen came on later.
Van Engelen replaced Ben Colgan, who was one of the personalities in the documentary later killed by snipers.
Van Engelen happened to be profiled in the Time Magazine Person of the Year issue in December 2003 -- and was subsequently shot in the head by snipers and survived. His story is here. He was quiet, with his fiance, and we didn't talk all that much,. However, I learned enough from him that he felt it was very important for Americans to see the reality of what our troops are living with in Iraq and what sacrifices they are making -- as we watch in comfort our favorite weekly sitcoms.
Jonathan Powers was amazing though -- and eloquent. While "Wilf" whom I noted above commented that he might just end up as President one day (and he has the charisma to possibly pull off something like that), Powers does have a good sense of politics -- and is exactly the opposite of Director Michael Tucker when it comes to the question of politics and war.
Powers wants politics in it -- and wants the politicians, the pundits, and the thinkers and journalists to be there on the front line so that the political calculus that created the environment at Gunner Palace gets the feed-back of both the good and the bad of what these military men and women are experiencing.
He made the very good point that on the same day that there was a bombing with dozens killed -- that story ended up buried in the paper whereas the front page of USA Today featured how much money Americans were spending dressing up their pets.
Powers was also brazen and said something very important at the end of the evening -- just before we broke up the public part of the event and went to a local bar. He seemed angry about the financial scandals regarding the lost $9 billion. He said we shouldn't be fighting and wasting energy about Social Security reform. We should be dealing with real issues.
The issue he said mattered was that the missing $9 billion wasn't missing at all. He said that he had had a lot to do with financial management issues and the distribution of money in Baghdad -- and CPA and the military knew exactly where that money went and into whose hands. They were shoveling it out to the people American authorities wanted to have it.
I think Captain Powers has some interesting and potentially legally important stories to tell.
I recommend watching the documentary. It's the most real depiction I've yet seen of what this war and occupation really look like.
-- Steve Clemons
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Terrific post, although I must say I haven't seen the movie (there is a significant delay between showings in the East and here).
Along the same lines, I thought The Fog of War much more persuasive than Farenheit 9-11 as an argument against the current Iraq War, as it did not involve all of the immediate (and at times overheated and irrelevant) issues concerning the current conflict.
But the question I have is this: there's usually a delay between the war itself -- and the flag-waving patriotic coverage in the media (in Vietnam, in WWII, etc...) - and the often harrowing accounts in books and movies that actually persuade people the conflict may not be worth fighting.
When will that be for this current conflict? Is it too controversial for a movie company or book publisher to touch while the conflict is underway?
Powers is correct about the 9 billion. Of course this money wasn't spent completely randomly. If only it had been!
justin -- you are now on the list for next round. I've been reassembling my email address data since my hard disk crashed and destroyed everything....You can borrow a tape from our office if you like, Steve
If you have a moment, please sign the petition to the MPAA asking them to change the "Gunner Palace" rating from "R" to "PG13". We are close to getting our first 100 signatures, but need many more...
Steve-
First, thanks very much for hosting the Gunner Palace showing on Wednesday night.
Your comment that this time "I tried to watch the film as if I were a strong proponent of the war" rings a bit hollow to me. If you were to truly adopt the mindset of a strong proponent of the war, you would realize that while any war is by definition horrific, a proponent believes that the cause (whatever that may be) is worth it.
I thought that the first 60 minutes or so of the film was very well done, and Michael Tucker did give a great window into what it's like to be a soldier in Iraq. But I thought his interviews with soldiers toward the end of the movie, which revealed them to have what appeared to be an exclusively negative and hopeless attitude toward the war, misrepresented how the soldiers actually feel. To be sure, a lot of them are against the war. But a lot of them are for it too. Much like the American population at large.
Which is why I find Michael Tucker's comment that he "wanted to keep politics out of the movie" a bit disingenuous.
In any case, thanks again for hosting the showing.
Eric Jaffe
Thanks for your generous note Eric. I did try and watch the film the second time from a different mental perspective. The first time I saw it was on video -- and I noticed more the music, the subculture of the soldiers, etc. the first round than I did the second. I think that there is an automatic disconnect between those on the front line in Iraq and those who make policy decisions about wars and how to use troops. I think that's just a reality -- but it is important for those making the decisions about how to deploy militaries to have some sense of what the soldier's world is like. I think Michael Tucker had some disdain for a chasm that will always be there -- and frankly should be there.
But you are right that there are some soldiers who were in favor of the war -- and you may recall that even Captain Powers said in response to my question that if a democratic Iraq comes out of all this effort, then the financial and human costs would have been worth it.
There was also another fellow in the audience who was much more supportive of the war than I think Tucker was (and certainly me) who spoke up -- and I thought made a very important comment. I'm very glad that this same guy (whose name I do not know) came over to the coffee bar later. He's clearly an important part of the mix and represents voices of those who see our presence in Iraq as justified.
When I visited Walter Reed and met some of the soldiers there, a number said that they would go right back. Others were glad to be home and didn't want to go back under any conditions.
It's a mixed bag -- just like the views in the audience.
Thanks for your note -- and hope to see you again,
Steve Clemons
Steve,
I'm a bit confused with your last reply's first paragraph. You first coalesce "those who make policy decisions about war and how to use the troops". Then, you continue with "those making the decisions about how to deploy militaries to have some sense of what the soldier's world is like". Next comes the chasm sentence. Are you saying that those who make policy decisions about war and those responsible for the deployment of the troops are one and the same? AND, these people shouldn't "have some sense of what the soldier's world is like"? Isn't a soldier's world "war", or are you talking of the food he/she eats?
Next, I would think that if Captain Powers truly thought tax dollars and killing were worth the cost of admission to democratic dreams he wouldn't be "former" Captain(then, again, he may be a Major now). But maybe my yardstick measures more exact when the importance of my idea involves killing.
Lastly, since you've extracted the contrarian side of me I would have loved for you to have stated the "very important comment" connected to the person who sees our Iraqi endeavor as justified. I feel like I can't finish my job.
Mr. Clemons, I doubt seriously we will see a screening of that film up here for a while, so thank you for your reporting. I enjoyed your take (both of them) and hearing about the feedback, especially from Captain Powers.
What concerns me is that "missing" $9 billion. I know money goes missing all the time, funnelled here and there to pay for things the public is not privy to, but this time I am rankled. Is it just me, or have we lost sight of the reason for accountability for so long now, that we're just supposed to let everyone in charge sweep this under the rug?
I have heard rumors about where this money might be going and I even agree with one speculation that it could be purchasing foreign manufactured armament to supply to the Pakistani insurgents, but the point is, nobody knows nuthin' -- ever -- and so we never know what side we are aiding, what war we are really fighting and who the enemy really is.
We change sides so often, installing this puppet regime or that dictator, depending on our mood swings, that following our foreign policy and War Games Theatre needs a constantly updated Playbill.
Learning now that Negroponte was made aware of the torture and murder of Hondurans by our own specially trained covert operatives, then directing the doctoring of the reports to hide this information (lying about it) just makes me ill when I think he has just been made the man in charge of our own domestic agenda. No wonder the enemy of our enemies are our friends. No wonder nobody trusts us. No wonder everyone is scrambling to build nuclear weapons -- if I were a small country on a hit list like Washington D.C. has going -- I'd want access to any kind of deterrent I could steal, too.
Nine billion dollars -- whoosh! Now you see it, now you don't. Will we ever know from out of which heaven, into which hell those pennies dropped?
Kate,
After reading your post, "which heaven" references what?
Mr. Clemons,
Had a wonderful time at the screening on Wednesday. It was great to share some of the experiences that I have been through with others that have not been there. So many different experiences that I could not have put into words that Mike tries to capture with a camera, and oftentimes does so very succesfully. I do think it is very important that the American taxpayer has an idea as to what is going on with THEIR troops. You guys paid for it, whether you agreed or disagreed with the troop deployment it was still your tax dollars. So once again I would like to reiterate how pleased I was to so a packed house for the screening and thank everyone for the positive dialogue regardless of your stance on the war.
"...and you may recall that even Captain Powers said in response to my question that if a democratic Iraq comes out of all this effort, then the financial and human costs would have been worth it."
I find that remark hauntingly haughty.
Not only because I can ask:
"Worth" it to whom? ----> $$$$$
But because I can also ask the question that no one else seems to want to ask:
If you had $300 billion to promote democracy in the Middle East, how would you choose to spend it?
On a war that feeds the unquenchable appetite of the military-industrial-media complex?
For this chap to declare that a cancerous war with a gazillion side effects--all far beyond his complexity horizon--can possibly, POSSIBLY, end up as "worth it" is Panglossian arrogant.
He is a no-nothing know-it-all, who undoubtedly can salute the flag rather smartly.
He will make a fine General some day.
Steve,
Thanks for screening Gunner Palace in Washington since this is the audience that needs to see this important film. After screening on the hill it became obvious that the young staffers there are very disconnected to what is happening in Iraq. Hopefully Gunner Palace will help them realize that we need to set some specific goals that we can identify so we know when we have reached the point to pull American troops out and givef Iraq a successful future.
Thanks for the opportunity to bring a version of the Real Iraq to Washington. Keep up the good work.
Jonathan Powers
Koreyel,
Were you there? What did you sacrifice for a cause that is "worth it or not"? Do you really know anything more than what the media and bloggers on both sides of the argument report.
Unless you have done something besides sit in the comfort of your air conditioned office and critique others, than I consider YOUR comments Panglossian arogant (big word by the way).
Grow up and realize everything isn't about you and that you are completely uneducated on this subject.
It's very hard to determine if any life is worth anything, and I agree it is very arrogant to say that it is, but it is also extremely hard and arrogant to say it is not when you see infant skeletons in mass graves with bullet holes in the backs of their skulls.
Please don't disrespect a man who gave you the freedom to post your comments. I beleive he has earned the right to state his opinions. Have you...?
OIF Veteran
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