"Body of War"
By Camilla A. Herrera
Greenwich Time
Sunday 06 April 2008
Documentary spotlights the human cost of
Iraq conflict.
Tomas Young was 22 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York
City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Two days later, after watching President
Bush speak to the country from the ruins of the Twin Towers, he decided to enlist
in the Army.
He expected to go Afghanistan. He went to Iraq instead. On April 4, 2004 -
five days after arriving - he was on a mission in an overcrowded, unprotected
truck when he was shot by a sniper. His spine was severed and he was left paralyzed
from the chest down.
"For the Iraqis on the top of the roof, it just looked like ... ducks
in a barrel," says Young in "Body of War," a documentary by former
talk-show host Phil Donahue and documentary filmmaker Ellen Spiro.
"They didn't have to aim."
"Body of War," which premiered Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and
opens at the IFC Center in Manhattan this Wednesday, features Young as he copes
with paralysis and treatment, deals with depression and juggles his medication
and care. We see his marriage struggle and his brother go to Iraq. This all
happens while he develops a growing opposition to the war - set against music
by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
During a meeting Tuesday, before Young and Donahue flew to Washington for the
premiere, the veteran explains he was recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center in Washington, D.C., when he began suspecting the reasons given for war.
He wondered where the connections between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein
existed and questioned the continued military presence in Iraq after weapons
of mass destruction had not been found.
These were questions Donahue says he also had considered while the Authorization
for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 was debated in Congress
before the invasion five years ago. He thought of them again after meeting Young
at Walter Reed. The vote authorizing war, he says, "is what put Tomas in
a wheelchair."
Donahue, who lives in Westport, says he approached Young about filming his
story. He told Young his story paints an honest picture of war and others need
to see it. Young agreed, and soon Spiro and her cameras were capturing every
aspect of Young's life as an injured veteran.
"I saw an opportunity to get the message out," he says. "When
people join (the military), they join with the knowledge that they may come
home in a body bag. Many don't think they'll come home in a wheelchair. Certainly
no man thinks he will come home to find he cannot satisfy his wife or girlfriend.
"They don't hear these stories. No one tells you about the consequences."
While Young begins to adjust, he finds his political voice. Early in the film,
he travels to Crawford, Texas, in August 2005 to join activist Cindy Sheehan
in her public request to meet with the president, who was vacationing at his
nearby ranch. While waiting, Young gave interviews and spoke about his injuries.
It was there he met members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, an organization
he soon joined. While in Texas, he also learned that Sheehan's son, Casey, was
killed in Iraq on the same day he was shot.
"I had all these misgivings in my head while I was at Walter Reed but
it wasn't until I got home that I decided to channel these feelings and questions,
speak out against a war that I now think is unjust and unfair and (now) I'm
guided by the fact that I don't want to see anyone else get hurt in an indecent
and misguided war."
Young says the film allows him to answer anyone who questions his patriotism.
"My enlistment was a patriotic undertaking and my new fight is equally
patriotic," he says. "A true patriot loves his country but does not
forget its sins of sending its boys and girls to fight a country that did not
attack us."
"Now I see myself fighting against a war that was entered into by unpatriotic
means."
"I speak for a man who gave for this land.
Took a bullet in the back for his pay.
Spilled his blood in the dirt and the dust.
He's come back to say:
What he has seen is hard to believe
And it does no good to just pray.
He asks of us to stand
And we must end this war today."
- Eddie Vedder
Intermingled with Young's story is footage collected by Donahue from C-SPAN
of the congressional debates that preceded the passage of the war resolution.
Included is footage of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who was vocal in his opposition
but remained among the minority, the "immortal 23" in the Senate who
voted against the resolution. Donahue calls the resolution a controversial action
because Congress turned away from its constitutional responsibility to declare
war (or not).
"After engaging in a superficial dialogue, robotic senators and house
members are seen voting to approve the Iraq War Resolution," says Donahue
in a statement about the film. "Members take to the floor, one by one,
reading talking points from the White House Iraq group, (a group of) advertising
agency warriors whose job was to sell the war. It was (them) who gave the nation
a litany of untruths."
Donahue also calls the resolution, "one of the most tragic errors of judgment
ever made by a United States Congress."
Part of the tragedy of the decision, says Young, lies in 4,000 U.S. war dead
- a milestone marked two weeks ago - and more than 40,000 injured, according
to www.icasualties.org. Tragedy also lies in countless Iraqi civilians caught
in the middle of the insurgency and civil war that have evolved soon after the
war began.
"It's easy to say the situation has improved without giving us a clear
picture of how," says Young. "It's easy to say we'll get out when
victory is achieved without telling us what that victory is.
"Our job was to remove weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein
for the supposed connection to Al Qaeda. He has been removed."
Greater is the urgency then to tell Tomas' story through "Body of War,"
says Donahue.
"There are thousands of Tomases out there, young men and women who are
dealing with life-altering injuries," he says. "Because of all of
them, it is essential we tell the whole unsanitized story."
It is essential so young men and women will consider their decision to enlist
carefully, says Young. "I wouldn't mind seeing this acting as a counter
recruitment tool," he says. "If you want to join the military as an
honorable thing, wait for this to be resolved."
Donahue hopes viewers recognize the politics of fear used to convince the country
to go to war so a similar scenario is not repeated.
"Four thousand dead and they are going to send more," he says. "That
is beyond irresponsible."
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