Iraq War Veterans, 20 Years Later: ‘I Don’t Know How to Explain the War to Myself’ | Op-Docs
Months after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, I began filming the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (known as the Gunners) in Baghdad. The unit was housed in a bombed-out palace on the banks of the Tigris that they named Gunner Palace.
Rather than just making a movie about the men, I suggested that we make a film together — an offer that the soldiers quickly embraced. They told the story of the war as only they could: They played guitar, spat out rhymes and played to the camera. But behind all their bravado and posturing, they were just kids who desperately wanted the world to understand the war through their eyes.
In the last two months of 2003, the Gunners lost three men to . attacks. They scrambled to create makeshift armor for their soft-skinned vehicles using scrap metal. When asked by a soldier about the lack of armor in 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
They were the army we had. They fought an enemy they couldn’t always see in a land they didn’t understand for reasons that were never entirely clear. In the midst of the pandemic, I visited the men and spoke with them about how they make sense of their role in a war that has yet to be fully reckoned with. In “The Army We Had,“ the veterans grapple with a past that still reverberates powerfully through their lives.
- Text by Michael Tucker
- Film by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker
More from The New York Times Video:
Op-Docs:
Subscribe:
Watch all of our videos here:
Facebook:
Twitter:
----------
Op-Docs is a forum for short, opinionated documentaries by independent filmmakers. Learn more about Op-Docs and how to submit to the series. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@NYTopinion).
1 view
115
39
4 weeks ago 00:10:45 1
Iran Strikes Back At The US Over Israel Attack!
4 weeks ago 00:40:51 1
Trump won’t fight foreign wars. Candace Owens denied entry to Australia. Is Joe Rogan a coward?
4 weeks ago 00:00:56 1
Norman Finkelstein : Reason of Iraq war
4 weeks ago 00:21:52 1
The US Government Hid This About The Iraq War (Warning* Mature Audiences Only)
4 weeks ago 00:25:50 1
Leftists ACTUALLY Argue Trump Works For Russia But Is Starting World War Three With Them??
1 month ago 00:22:53 5
The tomb of Gilgamesh and its connections with the Iraq war!
1 month ago 01:50:35 1
Former CIA Officer Amaryllis Fox Kennedy: Iraq, JFK, & Everything Else Our Intel Agencies Lie About
1 month ago 01:31:06 1
Why are democrats voting for Trump?
1 month ago 00:55:01 1
Julian Assange and the dark secrets of war | DW Documentary
1 month ago 01:23:33 1
“The more the US interfere, the more they are hated“ | Wadah Khanfar | UNAPOLOGETIC
1 month ago 00:00:00 1
Israel Under Attack LIVE: Houthis Target Israeli Military Base In Tel Aviv | IDF | Hezbollah | Iran
1 month ago 00:22:17 1
🚨 LIVE: Turkey Start WAR With Kurds In Iraq & Syria
1 month ago 00:00:24 1
Madeleine Albright says 500,000 dead Iraqi Children was “worth it“ wins Medal of Freedom
1 month ago 00:00:38 1
تصريح رئيس أمريكي سابق عن واقع الشعب الفلسطيني!🇵🇸 #غزة #فلسطين #اسرائيل #أمريكا #ايران #الشرق_الأوسط
1 month ago 00:00:16 1
سياسية كندية تفضح النتن-ياهو!
1 month ago 00:03:26 1
Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Reacts to George W. Bush Joke About Missing WMDs
1 month ago 00:29:34 1
What We Don’t Talk About in “Spec Ops The Line“
1 month ago 00:00:57 1
حق الدفاع عن فلسطين!
1 month ago 00:00:42 1
فرق الإنقاذ تحاول تشجيع غزل الناجية الوحيدة #shortsvideo #shortvideo #shorts #short
1 month ago 00:35:15 1
Possible Israeli Strike on Iran. Turkey hits PKK in Iraq and Syria. Russia - Iran strategic alliance
1 month ago 00:33:31 1
Scott Ritter: Russia’s Unstoppable Advance Cripples Ukrainian Army!
1 month ago 00:08:02 1
Israel Hiding Houthi Missile Strike On Tel Aviv? Hezbollah Drone Official Killed | IDF Toll Over 750
1 month ago 01:18:22 1
Scott Ritter | Israel on the Brink: IDF Morale Collapsing Amid Escalating Chaos!
1 month ago 00:17:36 1
Israel is COLLAPSING: Iran, Hezbollah, Yemen, Iraq & Syria Crush IDF w/ Prof. Mohammad Marandi