cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board  

Go Back   cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board > non-Sports > Art/Movies/Media/Music/Books

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-28-2011, 03:34 PM   #1
MikeWaters
Demiurge
 
MikeWaters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,363
MikeWaters is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Restrepo

Just watched this film last night. It is a documentary co-directed by Sebastian Junger who is best known for writing the book "The Perfect Storm".

He and his co-director stayed with a platoon in the Korengal valley in Afghanistan for about 15 minutes. It's an award-winning documentary and puts you right into the middle of one of the worst places in Afghanistan.

It is very good.

Some thoughts that occurred to me during the film:

1. It's hard as hell to fight when you don't know who or where your enemy is. It seems like our guys were always reacting to things, getting fired upon, ambushed. Never really on the offensive. Going on patrol, or staying in the OP, and waiting to be attacked. It seemed like they had no intelligence to conduct operations.

2. All the Afghan men, well almost all of them, that the soldiers encountered were old. Where were the younger men? Who knows. But my best guess is sitting in the hills firing on the Americans. What incentive did these poor villagers have to cooperate with the Americans? None. If they cooperate with the Americans they are dead men. If they cooperate with the Taliban, well, it's not like the Americans are going to line up and shoot their families.

3. One of the big moments for this platoon is when they risked their necks to create a new forward outpost (OP Restrepo, after their fallen buddy, Restrepo). Digging out in one night while being attacked. They talked about it being a turning point in the war. And then later you are told that OP Restrepo is only 800 meters away from the old OP! In one year, an advance of 800 meters! Now, I know that's a gross oversimplification, but it goes to the point of how apparently ineffective we are in combatting an insurgency that has the cooperation of the populace. One gets the impression that our soldiers live in much more fear than the Taliban in Korengal valley.

4. The movie was somewhat depressing in that I kept thinking "what is the point of this?" "Does this really have any chance of success?" The big goal in the Korengal Valley was to oust the Taliban, build a road, and allow for economic expansion which will win hearts and minds. You see these squalid poor people living in stone huts and can't help but wonder what in the world kind of economic expansion are we talking about here? It's like we are trying to do nation building with dirt farmers that are attacking us. It's a ludicrous proposition.

If we pull out of Afghanistan, it's going to be much worse for the Afghan people. For a number of reasons, but the two most important ones are this: 1. they will be under the murderous Taliban. and 2. The US will respond to the Taliban/OBL via hell raining down from the sky. And it's going to be much less discriminatory, and the result is going to be some kind of collective punishment. In other words, civilians will pay the price of proximity to the enemy.
MikeWaters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2011, 01:12 AM   #2
Zulu451
house-elf 3rd class
 
Zulu451's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 386
Zulu451 is on a distinguished road
Default

I have watched this movie as well and it brought back a lot of memories. There are many kids out at those little COP's and they are really out on an island. I agree with your observations and would add that I was very disappointed with the discipline that the soldiers demonstrated. It has been a while since I watched it but I was amazed at their lack of uniform discipline, trash all over the place etc. It is in environments like that where discipline is of top importance. If not all hell breaks loose. You can see why discipline and training is so important, because it is during the chaos of combat that you fall to the level of your training. It is the same in medicine, when the blood starts to flow and the blood pressure tanks, you fall to the level of your training. I never appreciated the importance of training and discipline until I saw it first hand. The SF and Ranger units are the epitome of this and it shows.

That show does show the reality of that war. I share your fears and concerns for the future of afghanistan.
__________________
<---- Mikewaters drives the lane...
Zulu451 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2011, 01:26 AM   #3
MikeWaters
Demiurge
 
MikeWaters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,363
MikeWaters is an unknown quantity at this point
Default

Btw, I did not mean to write "15 minutes" LOL. They were there off-and-on over 15 months (both were hurt and evacuated and came back).

Guys in the movie were firing from the OP in flip-flops and no shirts.

Maybe I should read Junger's book about the experience. It has pretty good reviews.
MikeWaters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2011, 10:33 PM   #4
MikeWaters
Demiurge
 
MikeWaters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,363
MikeWaters is an unknown quantity at this point
Default

Photog for Restrepo dead in Libya.

http://www.movieline.com/2011/04/rep...d-in-libya.php
MikeWaters is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 05:06 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.