Goof in the documentary?


Before I start, let me clarify somethings first before I start receiving the hate mail. I am in the Army and I'm just about to finish my 15 month deployment in Baghdad. I have watched this film and, yes, I think it was well done and a good film. Do I think torture is OK? No I do not. Do I think that what the "soldiers" (I use this term very loosely) in this film did was torture? For the most part, yes. Were they wrong? Absolutely, no doubt in my mind. Can you define what is torture? Yes, but what I think is and isn't torture is going to be reserved for a differnt post and not this one.

Now for the matter at hand: goofs and inaccuracies in the film.

Have only watched the film once but there was one point that caught my attention as a "what? Did they just say that?" It was at the point where the ring leader (forgot his name but he was the one doing most of the abuse on the night shift) was "rewarded" for doing such a good job and being praised by the MI supervisors. they made such a big deal out of this point that he was "rewarded" for this behavior and the documentary flashed quotes from an official Army document and then "soldiers" kept commenting on how he was "rewarded." This highly puzzled me and upon rewinding the clip to where the front of the document was shown my suspicions were correct. The document that suposedly "rewarded" the "soldier" for his behavior was a Counseling Form. For those who are not in the Army this point may be mute because they praised the "soldier" on an official Army document. Yes, it was on an official army document, but the problem is that Counseling Forms are not rewards. They are tool used by supervisors (usually monthly) to inform the individual soldier how he/she is performing in their duties. A supervisor can put whatever he/she feels like putting in there, good or bad, the form is just their opinion. Whats more, is that counseling forms (unless part of a packet for when the soldier goes before a promotion board or gets put under investigation) usually go nowhere outside that individual soldiers sphere of influence.

The film makes it out that based on this soul counseling form that the "soldier" was given an award (e.g. medal or commendation) for his bad behavior. A counseling form an award does not make.

Yes the counseling form did nothing to adress the issues at the prison or with the soldier and that is a problem with their leadership (or lack thereof). The fact he was praised in his counseling form did contribute to the "soldier's" own justification that what he was doing was OK.

Am I the only one who notice this possible goof in the film?

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Thank you for the clarification. I did not know that. I didn't really think that doc. was really a big deal. It really didn't stand out in my mind as being very important. It did show that his "supervisor/superior" commended him. Anyway, I was more concerned with the doc. approved by Rumsfeld.

I'm angry, but not surprised that the Oval office and Pentagon cronies (Bush, Rumsfeld, Miller etc.) point the finger at the guys low on the totem pole as if they had no earthly idea what was going on there. As long as it does not hurt their political careers, they could care less. That's what pisses me off.



www.myspace.com/muscle_queen I'm the football team waterboy. My nickname is H 2 Ho.

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personally i think you may have read too much into what was said in the doco, maybe because you do know a lot about the way the army operates.

i can tell you that from a laypersons point of view, i took it as the way YOU described it. ie - i didn't think he was given an award or anything, and i assumed it was just part of a regular review process.
i think the point was, here was an opportunity to be put in his place if he was doing something wrong - he performed his 'duties' (ie abuse, torture) at times in front of superiors, or intelligence officers. and yet he gets this glowing review. like they all said, if those photos didn't come out, this message board would not exist and all those soldiers would have continued on their merry way.

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