"New Documentary Coming Out" from Jase

All,

Hope this finds everyone in good spirits. We got an advanced viewing of a documentary called "Meeting the Resistance." A couple of journalist met with insurgents from June 03 to Jan 04 if I remember right. The entire movie is subtitled and there is no English in the whole thing. Nothing really surprising in the film. If the insurgents did not think like that, it would be surprising. They basically say that they are trying to protect Iraq and Arab soil from the occupiers. They think we are trying to take over and run their country. They don't think that we are trying to improve their country for them. Granted, what would you think if you saw tanks and soldiers with guns walking through your streets? I think the insurgents they spoke with are delusional, and victims of their own propaganda. Things like Abu Gharid did not help. While the "torture" there may be nothing compared to the Hanoi Hilton in Nam, it disgraced people. In the Arab world, personal honor is more valuable than anything. Doing what they did to the prisoners was probably the worst thing they could have done for our cause. From hearing them speak, you would think that Iraqi was a super happy fun place before 2003. There was a Q&A sessions with the film makers after the showing. One question that they asked the insurgents was "you wake up tomorrow, and the Americans are gone, what do you do?" They said the common answer was that they are on a journey across a bridge, and they do not know what is on the other side, they will find out when they get there. This question/answer was left out of the film. Personally, I think that is a major issue. They also played dark, scary music when Americans would cross the screen, and really made it look like the insurgents spoke for the common Iraqi. If they did, we would have been wiped out by now. If 30 million people were against us, we would have been destroyed along time ago. The FACT is that many of them work with us and report insurgent activity. I would say see it, as it can be enlightening, however, keep an open mind and realize that every documentary has an agenda and story they are trying to tell. I will say that the film maker's came and showed it to us and answered some hard questions. They didn't dodge them or talk around them. I feel like time is going by faster now, which is a really good thing. 6 months deployments really seem like nothing now. Football season helps that out a lot. The games come on late at night, so I'm usually tired on Sundays, but it's worth it. Season tickets are definitely in the plans for next year. For some reason, we are already on daylight savings time. I don't think the rest of the world is yet. I'm not really sure why we did it already. That's really about it for now. No news is good news in a war zone. Take care everyone.

Jase