My thoughts on the film


while there are many who criticize the film for being too pro muslim, or too pro american, i think it is neither...i think it gave equal value to the many viewpoints that were in iraq at the time.

you have the family or Ra'ad, who is left with a shop and hope, but miss their relative, and you can definitely feel the void they have in their lives. the brothers would like to retaliate against the americans responsible for Ra'ads death, but instead have a very balanced attitude about it "what was done was done"

you also hear them say that their brother's blood is being squandered by militants who want to use his martyrdom as an excuse for more bloodshed...that doesnt sound like a radical view to me at all...

you see, their view of martyrdom is much different than the supporters of Mahdi...they believed that becasue Ra'ad had volunteered to guard the mosque, he was protecting the vulnerable inside, and this was what made it honorable...his brothers and friends discussed how his death had been blown out of proportion by the followers of Mahdi and the average guy on the street until it had outgrown itself, and become the battle cry of the Mahdi...who believe that martyrdom is only truly bestowed on those that go out of their way to wage war and blow themselves up...

what i did see here was that the govt of america, and how they enact foreign policy, is in direct contradiction to the values that started the nation... just as in vietnam...instead of welcoming the help of locals to police themselves, and keep the bad elements out, they took broad strokes to take out their policy on everyone...which is a huge mistake...

the policy of disarming everyone, when we in our own nation believe in the right to keep and bear arms, is what i find despicable...and part of the reason that the policies they enacted there have created more radicals than friends...and is a symptom of the blatant police state mentality that the US government is so fond to propagate all over the world and is beginning to force on its own citizens...

if troops were really there to promote freedom, then they would not have gone out of their way to disarm everyone without first finding out who were their friends or enemies...the alienation of those that could have ended the war more quickly and prevented the extreme loss of life we are all familiar with is not only wrong but irresponsible...excluding a nations people from determining the direction of their nation is asking for trouble...

now, dont get me wrong, im a veteran, and i understand orders are orders, but there are some things that often get overlooked, and many things that soldiers are told to do in the name of freedom that are anything but that...

so i dont blame the soldiers for carrying out orders...often times they have very little truth to go on and just want to stay alive...its usually the rare case when a soldier deliberately violates human rights that we see it plastered all over the media as a representation of all troops in theater...

so who to blame really? who i do blame is the ones who made the policy in the first place and passed it down the chain...the JCS...the cabinet, anyone who is tied to the war department...their policies are dictatorial and extreme and designed to be that way...

as far as why Ra'ad was shot? who really knows, could have been bad intel...he could have unknowingly been guarding the mosque when someone who did mean harm to soldiers was in there, or set up by someone who did know there was imminent danger and asked him to take their place knowing the american soldiers were going to attack an insurgent leader...or it was simply new troops in the area unfamiliar with the locals...

of course that doesnt excuse the incident, or condemn anyone, it only goes to show that we are left with the same questions his family is left with...why? perhaps we will never know, and more than likely they will never know, and that is a huge burden they carry, and the director was trying to convey to the audience...

as far as why they did not put more effort into other incidents? well i think it would have broken the story, it was after all about one family and what was going on in their lives in relation to Ra'ad being killed...it is not about tit for tat...its about one family, about their experience and the political environment that surrounded them at the time...and nothing more...

there was another shooting associated with this single incident, and this time it was hard to say who was responsible, but from what was captured on film, it did appear that the iraqi police opened fire on their own people to stop a protest...when only minutes before they were waving at the participants...who knows why that happened, but we all know the consequences of this kind of heavy handed approach...it only fuels militancy...

for those that have criticized it because they may not like the film, or dont want to see the other sides of the story, or just want to paint all arabs as the enemy, look at it again without all the brainwashing...grow up for a change, and then see if you can really put everyone in this film in the same box...i think if you are truthful you will find some fit neatly in the stereotypes promoted by our media and government, but that some of them show unbelievable resilience, patience, and forgiveness in spite of their difficulties...

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