Has anyone else caught any of the DiscoverTimes channel series title "Off To War: From Arkansas to Baghdad"? (It follows members of the Arkansas National Guard from call-up through Kuwait to Iraq). The first three episodes have been aired (the 3rd debuted last night), and they are heartbreaking.
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Last night they showed the first three hour-long episodes back to back to back -- it was amazing to watch real broadcast journalism in action. Some of the scenes from the Iraq portion are unbelievable--the National Guardsmen just keep repeating "I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE"; the were trained in construction for their normal NG duties, and were sent there to aid in "building bridges and houses," but these kids are getting sent out on patrols and doing prisoner guard duty; their transports and scout vehicles have NO extra armor like the regular army has (no joke, they were taking scrap metal and welding it onto the doors of the trucks).
What really makes it hit home is that the filmmakers are shooting simultaneously in Iraq and Arkansas, so we get to see the impact this fucked up war is having on the families. It also is laudable in that it stays true to the so-called "objective" style of documentary filmmaking inasmuch as we never hear from the filmmakers or get a sense of what their politics are.
The only downside is that it is nestled away on DiscoveryTime (a channel i didn't even know was included in my digital cable package), instead of being shown on a continuous loop on NBC, ABC, and CBS. If you haven't checked this out, you should--it's as stunning as F9/11