Fat Ninja

I finally had a chance to watch the documentary Gunner Palace last night, and I have to say that this is a film that every American needs to see. Everyone of us that’s sitting at home or behind an office desk, sipping on coffee and bitching about the morning commute or the weather or how shitty the Vikings are doing this year owes it to the men and women of the armed services to go out and rent this movie.

Like the brief description on the DVD jacket says, this is not the war you see on TV. Actually, you wouldn’t even guess there was a war on if you went by TV alone. Major combat ended too long ago for that. I just want to thank a timid and cowed media for insulating me from the truth of what it truly is like over there. Thank you for doing our soldiers an injustice. And thanks especially to the Bush administration for putting these young men and women in harm’s way. Seattle-based film journalist Mike Tucker has done a great job of documenting the lives of the United States Army’s 2/3 Field Artillery unit (a.k.a., the Gunner Battallion) as they toil in the rebuilding of Iraq. Tucker’s work sheds a very grim and human light on what it is to be serving in Iraq (and by association, Afghanistan) as he follows batallion members on patrols and raids.

Despite the high tensions and the constant fear of a sudden and painful death, these soldiers still manage to find glimmers of inspiration and moments of respite in visits to the orphanage, or in music, and, yes, even gaming. They even manage to find humor in things, like the fact that they’ve had to solder sheets of scrap metal to their Hummvees to provide a poor substitute for the armor that our government should have provided them with in the first place.Prior to watching this film, my respect for service-men and -women was deep. After watching Gunner Palace this respect is profound. I cannot imagine at the age of 19 having to face death every day. Furthermore, I cannot believe that I have to go out and rent the truth. I can’t believe that stories like those of the “Gunners” take a backseat to local Halloween contests for pets, or the opening of a new Wal-Mart. What’s worse, I can’t believe we stand for it; that we are content to let this war take care of itself while men like Lt. Benjamin J. Colgen die every day on the streets of Baghdad.Please, rent this movie sometime. Or purchase it. Proceeds benefit military families. I think I will be picking this one up myself.

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