***SPOILERS*** Unique and disturbing look at the war in Iraq from the personal video journal of US Marine Let. Mike Scott who, after serving a tour in Afghanistan, volunteered to go there on the eve of Opertaion Iraqi Freedom: The invasion of Iraq in the early spring of 2003.
Scott felt then and even a bit now that he and his fellow marines were doing the right thing in liberating the Iraqi people from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussien as well as the belief in that he had enough WMD, weapons of mass destruction,to wipe out the entire Middle and Near East. What he saw in the fighting there that it was not Saddam and his elite Republican Guard divisions, who were for the most part nowhere to be found, that he was engaged with in the fighting but the Iraqi people, whom he was supposed to liberate, themselves.
From their starting point on the Kuwaiti border the US military launched it's ground invasion of Iraq proper on the morning of March 20, 2003. It's during the fighting in the town of Nasiriyab that Scott saw for the first time just how determined the Iraqis were in keeping their country from being overrun by foreign troops. What Scott also soon realized that they were not fighting for Saddam's regime but against him and his fellow US Marines!
As the US forces got closer to the Iraqi capital of Bagdad the fighting went from engaging Iraqi military infantry and tanks units, who by them were non-existent, to irregulars and guerrilla units who caused by far most of the US casualties. Scott as well as his fellow Marine's enthusiasm for the war began to dissipate as he saw the people he was fighting were the very ones he was supposed to liberate! As for Saddan's WMD the very reason for invading Iraq they turned up to be a no-show! Making Scott have serious doubts about the motives of those who sent him there to fight as well as the effectiveness of the US and foreign intelligence services who swore that they,the WMD, were there!
The movie or documentary ends in early 2004 with Scott now discharged from the US Marine Corps still trying to justify,in his own mind, the reasons why he fought and risked his life in Iraq and telling himself that if he were to be sent back there again he would go without question as well as conscience in his total and complete belief in the wisdom of his leaders who send him there! Even if that wisdom, like eagerly going to war against Iraq the year before, is suspect!
Were told by Scott that one of the main reasons for him not only joining the US Marine Corps but volunteering to fight in Iraq was the result of 9/11 attacks on America. As it turned out not only did Saddam Hassien have nothing at all to do with those attacks, like he was accused of by many in the US Government and media, but that no Iraqi or for that matter Afghan national were among the 19 suicide bombers who executed them! They were mostly Saudi Arabian as well as Egyptian and Yemenite citizens who's countries the USA has very close and friendly relations with!
Scott felt then and even a bit now that he and his fellow marines were doing the right thing in liberating the Iraqi people from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussien as well as the belief in that he had enough WMD, weapons of mass destruction,to wipe out the entire Middle and Near East. What he saw in the fighting there that it was not Saddam and his elite Republican Guard divisions, who were for the most part nowhere to be found, that he was engaged with in the fighting but the Iraqi people, whom he was supposed to liberate, themselves.
From their starting point on the Kuwaiti border the US military launched it's ground invasion of Iraq proper on the morning of March 20, 2003. It's during the fighting in the town of Nasiriyab that Scott saw for the first time just how determined the Iraqis were in keeping their country from being overrun by foreign troops. What Scott also soon realized that they were not fighting for Saddam's regime but against him and his fellow US Marines!
As the US forces got closer to the Iraqi capital of Bagdad the fighting went from engaging Iraqi military infantry and tanks units, who by them were non-existent, to irregulars and guerrilla units who caused by far most of the US casualties. Scott as well as his fellow Marine's enthusiasm for the war began to dissipate as he saw the people he was fighting were the very ones he was supposed to liberate! As for Saddan's WMD the very reason for invading Iraq they turned up to be a no-show! Making Scott have serious doubts about the motives of those who sent him there to fight as well as the effectiveness of the US and foreign intelligence services who swore that they,the WMD, were there!
The movie or documentary ends in early 2004 with Scott now discharged from the US Marine Corps still trying to justify,in his own mind, the reasons why he fought and risked his life in Iraq and telling himself that if he were to be sent back there again he would go without question as well as conscience in his total and complete belief in the wisdom of his leaders who send him there! Even if that wisdom, like eagerly going to war against Iraq the year before, is suspect!
Were told by Scott that one of the main reasons for him not only joining the US Marine Corps but volunteering to fight in Iraq was the result of 9/11 attacks on America. As it turned out not only did Saddam Hassien have nothing at all to do with those attacks, like he was accused of by many in the US Government and media, but that no Iraqi or for that matter Afghan national were among the 19 suicide bombers who executed them! They were mostly Saudi Arabian as well as Egyptian and Yemenite citizens who's countries the USA has very close and friendly relations with!