Soldiers of Conscience: blurb, review
Tonight (16 Oct 08, 22:00 PDT) I watched "Soldiers of Conscience", an episode of the POV series on PBS.
Before you read my thoughts (below), I want to share two statistics that I was made aware of today:
I'm not normally a television watcher, and I don't keep track of what's on... ever. I didn't even know for sure that our cable delivered TV channels until this past weekend, when we hooked up the TV that we fished out of the trash to satisfy our curiosity. It's a strange coincidence, then, that this morning I decided to drive to work instead of bike. The car stereo happened to be tuned to the local NPR affiliate, KQED. During those particular ten minutes, they were talking about Soldiers of Conscience, though they never referred to the film by name. I looked it up on KQED's website and decided to watch.
I'm glad I did, although it was hard at times. There are periodically photographs depicting the outcomes of violent conflict, and sometimes video footage, sometimes of the conflicts themselves. There were broken bodies, homes and lives, and the wretched conditions of Abu Ghraib. But also, there was hope. The personal stories of men who have taken lives, and who have chosen to turn their backs on warfare, no matter the cost to themselves. They didn't make their choices to have it soft; they made their choices to try to change the world for the better.
I'm making it sound like it was a bunch of hippies playing guitars and singing, though, and it wasn't like that. The soldiers interviewed who were not conscientious objectors were still presented sympathetically. The viewpoint that there may be such thing as a justified war was taken seriously. Accepting that view, or rejecting it, is ultimately (despite the filmmakers' biases) left to the viewer. Regardless of the position taken, though, the two points about which there is no room for argument are the twin notions that the morality of warfare is important, and we ought to be talking about it, and taking lives changes your forever.
I hope I can find the radio program from today. I remember somebody was talking about filming with the Army's cooperation, and going around to different units all over Iraq, collecting peoples' stories. This person was making the assertion that for every unit, for every soldier, there is a different war going on. People outside the military fundamentally cannot understand what they're going through - and the insight this speaker offered was that, even other soldiers can't truly understand what they're going through. So the decisions are all personal - but we could help them along. Edit: I found the link: click here to listen to the 16 Oct 2008 "Forum" on KQED.
I sincerely believe that someday, warmaking will no longer be viewed as a valuable (or, dare I hope? valid) tool of foreign policy. I think it will take a lot of people talking to get us there - but I think that this documentary is a useful contribution to that conversation. If you have the chance, please watch it, and share your thoughts with me.
Before you read my thoughts (below), I want to share two statistics that I was made aware of today:
- 75% of the soldiers in WWII weren't shooting to kill
- The #2 killer in Iraq is suicide
I'm not normally a television watcher, and I don't keep track of what's on... ever. I didn't even know for sure that our cable delivered TV channels until this past weekend, when we hooked up the TV that we fished out of the trash to satisfy our curiosity. It's a strange coincidence, then, that this morning I decided to drive to work instead of bike. The car stereo happened to be tuned to the local NPR affiliate, KQED. During those particular ten minutes, they were talking about Soldiers of Conscience, though they never referred to the film by name. I looked it up on KQED's website and decided to watch.
I'm glad I did, although it was hard at times. There are periodically photographs depicting the outcomes of violent conflict, and sometimes video footage, sometimes of the conflicts themselves. There were broken bodies, homes and lives, and the wretched conditions of Abu Ghraib. But also, there was hope. The personal stories of men who have taken lives, and who have chosen to turn their backs on warfare, no matter the cost to themselves. They didn't make their choices to have it soft; they made their choices to try to change the world for the better.
I'm making it sound like it was a bunch of hippies playing guitars and singing, though, and it wasn't like that. The soldiers interviewed who were not conscientious objectors were still presented sympathetically. The viewpoint that there may be such thing as a justified war was taken seriously. Accepting that view, or rejecting it, is ultimately (despite the filmmakers' biases) left to the viewer. Regardless of the position taken, though, the two points about which there is no room for argument are the twin notions that the morality of warfare is important, and we ought to be talking about it, and taking lives changes your forever.
I hope I can find the radio program from today. I remember somebody was talking about filming with the Army's cooperation, and going around to different units all over Iraq, collecting peoples' stories. This person was making the assertion that for every unit, for every soldier, there is a different war going on. People outside the military fundamentally cannot understand what they're going through - and the insight this speaker offered was that, even other soldiers can't truly understand what they're going through. So the decisions are all personal - but we could help them along. Edit: I found the link: click here to listen to the 16 Oct 2008 "Forum" on KQED.
I sincerely believe that someday, warmaking will no longer be viewed as a valuable (or, dare I hope? valid) tool of foreign policy. I think it will take a lot of people talking to get us there - but I think that this documentary is a useful contribution to that conversation. If you have the chance, please watch it, and share your thoughts with me.