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Did you guys hear small arms fire?

Did anybody clear those rooms yet?

-Negative. -Okay.

Stop them!

Going out there to get them.

Sergeant Smith is down?

Smith is down.

Is there anybody behind me?

There they are!

Right there!

Corner of that building!

Ready? Go forward!

There they are! Light ’em up!

November 29th.

I want to kill.

Cease fire! Cease fire!

Hold on!

I may have already killed one or some of these bastards

with the Mk 19 grenades or the SAW.

I have a reoccurring epiphany:

this is happening and will have a lasting impact on me

for the rest of my life.

Platoon!

-Attention! -Hoo-ah!

My name is specialist Michael Moriarty

of the Charlie Company,

3rd of the 172nd Mountain Infantry.

This recording will be an ongoing video documentation

of the day-to-day experiences and accounts

from the eyes of the fine soldiers in Charlie Company.

David, say hello to the camera.

And there’s (unintelligible).

Ooh.

-This is some-- -Oh, yeah! Yeah!

Go, National Guard.

Okay, have y’all seen this one?

Uh, good morning.

This is Sergeant Stephen Pink

from Kingston, Massachusetts.

Getting ready for deployment

to Iraq.

Ah, God.

There’s a camera in our door.

The idea of the cameras came around, I said,

"Yeah, sure, I’ll take one."

Like anything else in the Army,

when something new comes along, everybody wants it.

I mean, it doesn’t matter if it’s socks or ammunition.

You don’t like the camera?

I’m not supposed to talk to the media.

I’m not the media.

I’m not the media, dammit!

I had some experience, you know,

with journalism in college,

and a little bit after college.

I couldn’t really tell if there was any way to, like,

truthfully tell a story without putting a slant on it.

I’ve got a degree in English and minored in Sociology.

My second year of college, I saw this sign for, you know,

help out with tuition, and I made a rash decision.

It also felt that it was a time in my life

when I needed to kinda test myself

and make sure that I could accomplish something, right?

-Go! -It’s the real world.

I don’t hear anything yet!

Go! Go! Go!

Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!

Yeah!

Low crawl, woo!

An active duty soldier is a full-time soldier.

Hillman, just like a crab does it!

A National Guard soldier is a citizen soldier.

Oh, oh, look at that silhouette.

Wow, just exposed himself to enemy fire.

Doing a little plumbing here.

He’s a citizen 28 days of the month.

Whoa!

It landed over there, but it was supposed to go here!

This next shooter is the videographer himself,

yours truly, Specialist Michael Moriarty.

I joined the National Guard

in 1988 as a combat engineer.

Look at the fat on that guy.

I am a substantially patriotic person,

and on September 11th, uh, it struck me hard.

It struck me real hard.

That was like somebody hitting my house, to me,

and, uh, I had--so badly had to do something about it

that I took time off of work and I went to Ground Zero.

And I saw it still-- still burning.

And I wanted it to etch me so bad that I never forgot it.

I called a recruiter, and I said,

"You slot me into a unit only if they go into Iraq."

This is the first time I will see combat.

I came really close during the first Gulf War,

and the war ended about three days

before we were ready to leave.

-Forward! -Forward!

March!

You’re not getting anything.

This is our last pass overnight with our families.

The last two days before we leave for Iraq.

We look and smell nice!

Hello.

Hey, buddy!

How are you, pal?

Ooh, I love you so much!

How are you?

I miss you so much.

I’ve been criticized by family.

I’ve been told, more or less,

that I’m an irresponsible father,

irresponsible husband,

for making this decision.

He’s so happy!

I had a heart-to-heart with my wife

about what motivates a soldier to want to go

into a situation he might not come back from.

-See Daddy? -Hi, baby!

-Hi! -Say hi to Daddy!

It didn’t matter to her if she understood it.

She will do whatever it takes to support me.

A lot of soldiers dramatize,

and you’re this patriotic, self-serving guy, selfless,

and you’re just doing it to help save our way of life,

but, ultimately the average soldier’s

just somebody like, you know, my soldiers,

and, you know, just a guy like,

"Damn, I got the call.

Yeah, it sucks.

Do I really wanna go? Probably not."

But they’re doing it.

What else can you ask for from a man?

But you still will go to Iraq today.

It’s just another day here in the barracks.

Even the chairs around this place are patriotic.

Yep, no room for citizens in here.

I was born in Lebanon,

(unintelligible) Shiite Muslims, really.

I moved here when I was 10 years old.

A few months after we got here, they divorced,

so, I lived with my mother.

And after high school,

I went ahead and joined the U.S. Army

where I spent four years on active duty.

I really wanted to travel, anyways.

It’s why--one of the reasons I joined the Army.

Yeah, I remember, like, a month after I got activated

to go to Iraq.

She calls me up, and, uh, she’s like,

"I just saw the news, and some mothers are sending

their kids ACs because it’s so hot."

She’s like, "I was just thinking you could take it with you."

I’m like--I could see myself, you know,

with my rucksack on my back and a AC above me.

I’m like, "Mommy, what’s the matter with you?"

So how do you feel about this deployment, sir?

Just a second, by the way, he’s an officer,

so you’re gonna get a political answer.

I feel very good. I got great troops,

and, uh, great NCOs to square me away,

so I have no doubts that we will succeed in our mission.

Hoo-ah. Good stuff, sir.

Thank you for the honest and forthright answer.

Ahh, here’s some of my reading.

Good little magazine here, The Nation.

Not a pro-Bush magazine.

Then again, who is nowadays?

I love politics, you know, I’m a political junkie.

You know, I mean, we’re here now

because we have a commander-in-chief

that decided we need to go to Iraq, so, you know...

Right now, it’s like a train that’s set in motion,

you just can’t turn back around.

It was an historic moment for Iraq,

that beleaguered country.

A temporary constitution was signed,

a first step toward elections and sovereignty,

and a major accomplishment for the U.S.

in what is expected to be a long and difficult path

for Iraq’s independence.

Daddy’s gotta go to work.

Why?

Just because.

Hoo-ah!

-Hold the ranks! -Hold the ranks!

Ah, yeah, we’re ready for the desert now!

(unintelligible)

(unintelligible) snow angel!

Snow angels!

The day is here.

Life will change.

-Good luck, Specialist. -Thank you.

Every soldier eventually wants to go in combat.

It’s a natural instinct, like I said.

If--it’s like, uh, training a football player all season

but never letting them play in a game.

There’s times when you’re kind of afraid.

But for the most part,

we’re prepared and we’re trained

and we know what we’re doing.

If you let fear get to you, then, you, uh,

you’re really not gonna be doing your job.

Sit down, everybody!

This is the real deal, man.

Every soldier in the past, they’re my heroes.

Hopefully I’ll be someone’s hero.

-You ready? -Bring it on.

You ready?

Here we go.

Iraq, here we come.

Bye, Matthew and Kenley and Randi.

You’re coming over here to conduct a mission

under Operation Iraqi Freedom

that is absolutely vital for our nation.

You are in a danger area right now, today, here in Iraq.

Well, here we are.

The scenic vista: Camp Anaconda in Balad.

We’re gonna be staying in these giant tents

until, uh, we’ll get some improved living conditions.

Welcome to Iraq, gentlemen.

Only one year to go.

-That’s all. -There we go.

What we’re talking about!

Live free or die!

This is home.

Home, sweet home.

Take a look at these Humvees

and see what kinda damage

has been done the last couple of days.

As you can see, that window is four inches thick.

It’s 75 pounds just for the window itself.

Holy shit!

Jesus Christ.

Whoo!

Camp Anaconda is the most attacked base in the country.

Gets mortar attacks on a daily basis.

This still remains a pretty damn dangerous place.

That’s the all-clear.

I have no place to go.

This is the, and I’m serious...

If one hits here...

If we end up in a survival situation,

I give you guys permission to eat me.

Well, chances are we’d get resupplied in a week,

so, we wouldn’t need to eat you.

You don’t need a resupply in a week if you’re eating me,

you’re good for a month.

There’s the mount for the camera right there.

I’m gonna patent that shit.

Bank.

Come on, let’s roll!

Our primary mission is convoy security.

We go out every day.

We go to the KBR/Halliburton truck yard.

We escort their convoy to wherever,

usually it’s Scania, and we take one back.

The stuff that KBR’s driving is logistical stuff.

We’re moving, uh, cheese.

Cheese, food, soda, paper supply, and fuel, too.

Hey, it’s my guy that’s here, I want you to get up there.

We’re gonna be vehicle number 6.

I need you get up there cautiously and safely.

Nassir will help you out.

Hey, numb-nuts!

Be careful around the bend.

You leave the wire, your main concerns are IEDs,

which are improvised explosive devices.

And the other one is RPGs,

which are rocket-propelled grenades,

Bazookas, whatever you wanna call ’em.

The most worrisome for people is, uh, VBIED,

which is vehicle-borne IED,

which is army name for a car bomb.

We’re here waiting to go over this pontoon bridge.

I’m watching you.

I’m watching you watching me.

Y-M-C-A

It’s good to stay at the Y-M-C-A

What’s up, man?

What are you selling?

Y’got any dope?

-Any dope? -Yeah.

-No. -Smoke? No?

-Smoke? -Yeah.

-Cigarettes? -No, man.

Holy shit, look at the size of those cigarettes, huh?

-Hey, what’s up, bro? -What’s up?

-What’re you selling, man? -Knife.

A knife? How much?

Gimme five, man, gimme five.

-Huh? -Gimme five, bro!

-Five? -Gimme five!

-What’s five? -Hit my hand, man.

Like this, I’ll show you.

Put your hand like that, ready?

-Like this. -Okay.

Like that.

Yeah, now you’re talking.

Yeah! All right.

Ah, you see the size of that knife?

Look at the size of the kid selling it.

Go tell your uncle, "Stop setting IEDs.

Sell fucking knives instead."

What is that? Oh, all right.

You got anything with farm animals?

Animals?

You know, if I was in a religious cult,

I would probably buy that, you know?

But, uh, I’m not, so, no thanks.

Oh, okay.

The kids, sometimes they’ll wave and smile,

and other times they’ll flip you off, you know?

You see people out there walking on the road,

and automatically you assume that they may have

something to do with-- with an IED going off.

It’s unfortunate for Iraqi civilians,

but any guy’ll tell ya that it’s gonna be

our safety before theirs.

Good evening. The war in Iraq is back on, big time.

American forces are fighting

Shiite militia south of Baghdad.

In the past 48 hours, coalition forces

have battled extremist Shiite militants across Iraq

in some of the fiercest fighting

since the U.S. invasion a year ago.

U.S. forces have announced a warrant

for the arrest of firebrand sheikh Muqtada al-Sadr,

the ringleader behind the violence.

It’s, uh, oh-dark-thirty in the morning,

and we’re rolling out.

Things are hot and heavy out there.

We got a cleric out there that’s, uh, had a call to arms,

and he’s creating quite a hassle for us.

-Uh... -Whoo!

-IED! -Are we on fire?!

IED! IED!

-IED! -Fucking A.

IED!

Look for a target!

Where? Where?

Come on, bitch!

Fuckin’ son of a bitch.

Today was the first time I shook a man’s hand

that wasn’t attached to his arm.

So I was the first one there

and immediately clamped Reggie’s brachial artery.

I looked down at his hand dangling

from the exposed bone that used to be his elbow,

like a child’s safety-clipped mittens

dangling from their winter coat.

If I play the odds,

one of us will die before the tour is over.

It’s something that I don’t like to think about.

After being back here for about an hour or two,

time to stop and think about

what you had just been through.

There were guys saying prayers at the table, and, uh,

we all got choked up.

It comes down on ya like a ton of bricks...

...how close you just came to never seeing your family again,

never seeing my kids again.

Brush your teeth, okay?

Matthew is so close with his dad.

He says that, you know, Daddy’s his best friend.

You’re practicing your play today in school.

I’m gonna videotape it for Daddy.

Careful, pal.

It’s really hard for him to not have his dad

and to not understand...

There, lay down!

One. Two.

Kenley’s growing up.

She’s gonna be a different person when he comes home,

and that’s really difficult.

I’ve never been alone,

so I’ve never been independent.

For him to say that he’s joining the military

to go to Iraq was really hard for me,

and I--at first, I was not willing to let Mike go.

But he felt that something was missing.

He worked for a forklift company,

and they kinda downsized, and his job got eliminated,

so then he became a stay-at-home dad for a year.

Mike needed to do this, and if I held him back,

he would’ve been bitter towards me.

That’s my new backpack.

Where’d you get it?

-From my daddy. -Open up!

Open up! No.

Hey!

Up here on the roof of the IHP building,

securing the perimeter from this angle.

Here we are in a fighting position

with machine guns and--and Mk 19s.

But, uh, this is actually someone’s backyard down here,

right below us,

and there’s this little boy that plays there.

He just kinda wanders around talking to himself

and torturing his little chickens over there.

This little kid is in a world of his own,

surrounded by all this stuff.

Funny little kids in the middle of a war zone.

You just hope that they don’t turn bad

as they get older like many of ’em do.

It’s not even 6 o’clock.

It’s fucking hot already.

In order for them to continue running missions in Iraq,

KBR insisted that the Army provide shooters

for every other one of their trucks.

Which means they take rear echelon motherfuckers,

and they put ’em inside the KBR truck with an M16,

so they...

This guy right here thought it’d be

fucking changing pillow cases the whole time in Iraq,

and now he’s sitting in a truck

in the most vulnerable position.

More vulnerable than the MPs

because the KBR trucks are more of a target than we are.

Army truck drivers make 17 grand a year, you know, E5.

So they outsource it, privatized,

save the Army money,

and now we pay KBR 120 grand to do the same job.

KBR trucks, our course is, uh,

Kellogg, Brown, and Root.

Owned by Halliburton,

run by the vice president, Dick Cheney.

KBR annoys me.

I don’t wanna talk politics, but, man...

They got it good.

Take every store in your town,

every gas station, police department,

fire department, and let it all be run by one company.

I mean, that’s basically what they do.

They have their hands in anything you can think of.

First Platoon, get some chow.

KBR runs all our chow halls.

Today we’re having

Middle Eastern Swedish Meatballs,

and Iraqi freedom fries.

Look at all these plates, huh?

To charge the military food,

they’re gonna put out 4,000 plates,

times $28 a plate.

So when people take two,

’cause sometimes we take one and then we’ll take one

and put it on top to keep it warm,

it’s 56 bucks KBR just charged the government

Everybody there stands to make money

the longer we’re there.

So that’s why they refer to it as the war for cheese.

You know, there’s been some changes

on the Anaconda here.

We got a drive-thru window at Burger King now,

which is great, and they’re wide enough

so Humvees can go through.

So on your way out to work,

you can grab, you know, a burger,

maybe some french fries or something.

It makes it feel-- feel like home.

I’m just kidding! That’s not true.

There’s my new driver.

Specialist Steven Rizza, fucking lunatic.

Hey, how many people have you bumped with the Humvee so far?

Nobody! I don’t bump anybody.

I use my directional all the time.

I’m a very courteous and professional driver.

You’re a fucking bullshit artist, too.

You almost have to have a false sense of security

to do this business.

Move over! Move over!

Get out of the way!

You almost have to convince yourself, in your head,

that it won’t happen to me.

Get the fuck out of the way! Go!

We’re stopped up here. We’re stopped.

There’s a woman in there! There’s a woman in there.

Good job.

Fuckin’ outstanding.

Pay attention!

Move over!

From where?

Fucking three o’clock.

-Uh, taking fire. -We’re taking fire.

I can’t see it. I can’t see it.

If you didn’t have any faith,

you’d probably have a very hard time

leaving that wire every day.

Basically, we’re like, uh...

the mother of all street cops, if you will.

Stop!

Stop! Halt!

In America, you just kinda put your hand up

and you say, "Stop."

Uh, in Iraq, that means "Hello."

Uh, this is stop, so, the guy sees a U.S. soldier

telling him "Hello" over and over and over,

and next thing you know, he sees a soldier

telling him hello in a different way.

Come on!

Occupation doesn’t really come naturally

for an infantry outfit.

It’s there to be an efficient destroying machine.

I find it interesting, all these dudes

that come sitting out here like they didn’t do nothing.

Yeah, that’s where they were the other day.

When we sat on that jackknife,

they were so fucking frustrated with us,

they started yelling.

You fucking shoulda shot ’em.

I’m not getting that fucking truck.

Hostile intent. You shoulda fucking shot ’em.

You take 150,000 U.S. soldiers out of America,

and you transplant ’em to Iraq for a year,

and with absolutely zero training whatsoever

about the culture.

It doesn’t take a shrink to tell you,

ignorance is one of the first steps

towards prejudice.

That is one serious afro.

She must’ve spent hours

picking that thing out in the morning.

I told ’em I’m 25 years old.

He’s 10 years old.

I was born and raised the first 10 years of my life

in Lebanon, so, uh,

I guess naturally, I’m, uh, fluent in Arabic.

Sometimes people come up to me like,

"Man, that’s so cool, you know Arabic."

He asked me if I had a donkey, I said nah.

The ones that I do talk to, for the most part,

are, you know, they get a kick out of it.

Eventually they ask me,

"How the hell do you get a visa to America?"

I’m like, "I was 10, man, I don’t know.

My parents got it for me."

I guess that’s every foreigner’s, uh, dream.

Asked him if he likes America, he says yes.

And when the flower blooming in spring, so...

He 25, 26 years old, and I still believe, like,

he is a little baby in my eyes.

And I fight a lot with Zaher.

Because, probably, we both look, um,

have same personality.

He’s very sociable and love people and, uh,

a short fuse, and I’m like that.

So we always, like, hang up in each other.

I shouldn’t say it, but I said it anyway.

He like to be big shot.

When he was in Lebanon, he was president to his class,

and when we came here,

he also was president to his class.

I think he felt he doesn’t have enough support from me

for college.

Like when we first came, I don’t know the language,

and you cannot bring your house with you.

You leave everything behind.

You bring suitcase full with, uh, clothes,

that’s all.

One time, militia shoot from the street at my house,

and the army shoot back from my bathroom window.

Zaher was very, very little boy,

and we stuck in the bathroom, four of us,

and my kids just so scared.

I never thought he’s gonna be army man.

He felt the army give him discipline

and make him man more than raised by women.

He didn’t even listen.

Life no sense for me anymore.

Because I have my shop,

I have my car, I have my house.

Here I am: I came, I won, I saved these kids,

and then I bring my kid to be in the worst place

in the whole world, I mean...

Well, he’s my life.

And here we have Sergeant Bazzi

communicating with the local people.

Think he might be a spy.

Don’t quite trust him.

What’s he doing? He’s plotting against us.

I know he is.

Yep! Ya see?

The deal is sealed.

In order to keep your sanity in the Army,

you have to have a thick skin,

’cause everybody rags on everybody.

You practicing our handshakes?

What the hell is this?

A fraternity?

What a traitor.

All right.

Every war has got its own little, uh,

term to dehumanize the other side,

and we had "gooks" in Vietnam,

and this war has hajis.

Fucking hajis got a fucking plan

to take us all out.

But we don’t plan on letting that fucking happen now, do we?

Hell. No.

Becomes almost like a filler, you know.

Anybody that’s non-American almost becomes a haji.

It originated because, uh,

a lot of the older men in Arab cultures

have done their pilgrimage to Mecca,

so when you come back, you become a haji.

So it’s used by Arabs for Arabs as a term of respect,

but somehow I don’t think the U.S. soldier on a patrol

is using it in that context.

The bad guys, or the insurgents,

I’m sure they have their own derogatory term towards us.

Maybe it’s just part of human affairs and war.

This is what happens when you fuck with the Americans.

We were just informed by our squad leader

that we’ll get the night off, which is good.

Sometimes you get fucked and you work extra and, uh,

sometimes this happens.

What are ya doing, man?

Making a pistol.

Why are ya making a pistol?

’Cause they won’t give me one.

So what the hell are ya gonna do with that thing?

I’m gonna scare people with it.

Waving the M16 isn’t gonna make an Iraqi civilian

move out of the way.

But if you point a pistol at them, they’ll run like hell,

because that’s what Saddam and his agents used

to murder Iraqis here.

They all used pistols.

You gonna make one for everybody?

Do I look fucking stupid?

Today is, uh, "Sporting Chance Tuesday."

Onward, Christian soldiers!

We like to give these insurgents a fair chance.

So what we do, we ride with the windows down,

because, you know, we obviously have the advantage.

I’m just kidding, we don’t fucking ride

with the goddamn windows down.

That’s not true.

Very unsafe.

Whoa.

Right there.

All right, let’s get over to that site.

Be advised, we’re, uh, leaving Taji right now.

We believe that, uh,

the blast was right outside the gate of Taji.

We’re heading to that location now.

Over.

That’s a fucking car bomb!

Motherfuckers!

Get your vest on!

Hey! Get over the fucking Sheriff One-Six out,

One-Four elements, get to the gate.

Sheriff One-Six or any One-Four elements,

we need you at the gate of Taji right now.

Over.

Any move One-Four element.

This is One-Four Alpha.

Over.

Stay low, Rizzy.

Over to the right.

Get your bag, get your bag!

Yeah, yeah, I got it!

It was-- it was mass casualties.

Probably 20 dead, 20 or 30 wounded Iraqis.

It just looked like, you know,

someone had--had thrown a quarter through a guy

and it was just, like...

there was no blood coming from the shrapnel wounds.

Everything was cauterized, and it was just like

there was a void going-- going through their body.

This is the scene north.

They just, uh, removed a burnt body,

or half a body from here.

I don’t think there was anything left, uh,

from his abdominal down.

This is blood.

And, uh, you know, you’re walking,

you hear the pieces of skin and...

That’s all that’s left.

I remember giving three IVs,

bandaging several wounded.

Soldiers sitting in the corner

of a sandbag wall shaking and screaming.

Medics who were terrified and couldn’t perform.

I later heard that Iraqi casualties

were not to be treated in Taji.

They can work on the post for pennies,

but can’t die there.

They’ve got to die outside.

If one of those incompetent medical officers

told me to stop treatment,

I would’ve slit his throat right there.

Twenty-one-hundred hours,

and it’s just our squad

going through today’s events in our heads.

Whether we want to or not.

More violence in Iraq.

Twin suicide car bombings

killed eight Iraqis and wounded dozens more

-near a coalition base... -We made the news.

I feel exploited and proud at the same time.

I have lost all faith in the media,

a hapless joke I would much rather laugh at

than become a part of.

I should really thank God for saving my lucky ass.

I’ll do that, then I’m gonna jerk off,

because these pages smell like Linds,

and there won’t be any time for jerking off tomorrow,

another mission at zero-six-hundred.

When I get a letter from him, I run to the mailbox.

In the beginning, he’s like, "Write something dirty!"

I couldn’t write something dirty!

Me and my girlfriend got, like,

a Hustler magazine or something,

and I went through the magazine

and put a picture of my face over every girl’s body.

So I was like, "You want dirty? You got it!"

Steve just liked to laugh.

We like--like to just have a good time.

He doesn’t really like to let people in.

He thinks his feelings are his problem,

and he doesn’t want to burden anyone else.

Steve’s way of getting emotions out is his writing.

I don’t think he really told me

exactly how he felt about me until he was over there.

Saying goodbye to Steve was horrible.

It’s still a nightmare.

I still cringe every time the news is on,

and think about where he is and what he’s doing.

Every once in a while as we’re driving down the road,

creeping along on patrol,

I have a reoccurring epiphany.

This is happening and will have a lasting impact on me

for the rest of my life.

The debate we had earlier in the day

over the consistency and texture of a severed limb

was not some far off, grotesque assumption.

It was a genuine argument between the guy who swears

it resembles hamburger, ground up but uncooked,

and the guy who believed it looks more

like a raw pot roast.

There is no argument, however,

that human intestines are pink pork sausage links.

If, of course, you imagine a butcher’s block

as the background instead of the screaming,

then soon quietly moaning, casualty.

Why are the mortar attacks at the same level now

that they were four months ago?

I mean, there’s gotta be--

I mean, we’re supposed to be

the most technological army in the world,

and we can’t figure out where the hell

these guys are shooting ’em from?

We got more aircraft.

We could probably line the Persian Gulf

with the aircraft and walk across!

That’s Rizza there, my driver.

We should really make this guy general,

I think, because then maybe he can, you know,

put some of these theories to use.

Now, why do you think that we do so much bitching?

Why do you bitch?

-I don’t bitch. -Why do you bitch?

-You lying sack of shit. -I don’t bitch.

-You are so-- -You--oh my God!

Now you’re fucking ass-kissing.

You become an NCO.

It’s called regulating, delegating authority,

and making things happen.

Doesn’t matter what rank you are.

It’s plain-ass bitching.

Look it up in a Webster’s dictionary.

Uh, my team’s been tasked out to provide security for, uh,

septic waste trucks.

Basically the poop trucks.

Whoever said being a soldier’s all blood and glory

obviously forgot about the shit.

Forth! Follow that shit truck!

Oh! Can you smell the poop?

All right, hold on, I gotta put this on camera here.

This is one of the premier locations

where we dump our poop water.

Gonna be a lot of healthy grass and trees in this area.

So every time some kid sees a commercial saying,

"Join the army, fight bad guys,"

they need to include this.

Streams of poop water.

We are bringing democracy and good vegetation to Iraq.

Hey, you can even see a little small rainbow!

I wonder if there’ll be a pot of gold under that rainbow.

This is a day of great hope for Iraqis.

In just 15 months,

the Iraqi people have left behind

one of the worst regimes in the Middle East,

and their country is becoming the world’s newest democracy.

A brand new Iraqi flag now flies over this green zone,

but this country is also swept up

in the terror of the insurgency,

and so the mood can best be summed up

as hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

Iraq is a sovereign nation.

What is your, uh, take on the whole thing,

-as far as new govern-- -Well, I think

it’s a fantastic opportunity for the Iraqis

to, uh, establish, uh, new history in the country

and be able to, uh,

to be a free and democratic society,

which, in turn,

should stabilize the whole Middle East

and create a freer, more stable Earth as we know it.

Tell me how you really feel.

Then, after that happens...

It’s so hard to look at things

in a positive light as far as Iraq goes.

Whenever anything happens that’s positive,

they all get excited,

and it doesn’t last for any length of time.

Um...

Eventually they’ll be shooting at us again.

When you’re working night missions,

have to kind of lay low and kinda let the dust settle

so the new interim government,

the new Iraqi National Guard,

and the Iraqi police can get out there

and start to take control of their own country.

Every single time you go out there,

there’s--there’s, um, IEDs.

If they’re not hitting you, they’re hitting nearby.

There’s attacks.

It’s unbelievable.

Rumor has it there is a, uh, bounty out.

The insurgents will give anyone $15,000

if they get one of our gunner shields

with the skull and ice axes.

When you’re out there, uh,

you start to think about reality, and the reality is:

Why the fuck am I sitting here

guarding this truck full of cheesecake?

Are these people crazy?

I feel like the priority of KBR making money

outweighs the priority of safety.

Whoa, did you see that off to the right, Mike?

What?

-That. -That was an IED.

All right, we’re coming up on--

Well, it went off just to our right there.

How the fuck does he set off an IED

when there’s Bradleys here?

Ah, there is shit pouring out of that truck right there.

Seems to have shrapnel in his left bicep and arm area.

We are trying to get him out of the turret as we speak.

Over.

Come on, motherfuckers,

I dare you to shoot just once.

They’re coming from the left side.

Come on, motherfucker, keep going, brother.

You wanna play?

They’re shooting at me.

I don’t give a fuck if they’re the pope.

You knew you liked the army.

We’re tired, we’re so cynical right now, man.

I, you know, I support the mission.

And I support a lot of things.

But I’m starting to say to myself,

"What the fuck?

Shit or get off the pot."

If the problem is not going away,

then kick it up a notch.

And I don’t give a fuck

if that means nuking this fucking country.

Yep.

Meanwhile, there are fucking innocent

fucking U.S. soldiers getting killed.

It’s only a matter of time before our number’s up.

People say they’re evil and they hate our way of life

and that they don’t see that we’re trying to liberate ’em.

Well, if Canada invaded tomorrow

and they said, you know,

"We’re here to liberate you guys from Bush,

’cause we think Bush is bad for you,"

there’s gonna be definitely some people

that take to those mountains

and do some serious guerrilla fighting.

The insurgents got their principles

and we got ours.

You gotta respect it.

At a practical level, when I’m on the road,

it’s my guys versus them.

The hell with our morality, but I want one thing,

and one thing only: combat.

Where was that?

Where was it?

-Where? -Like 200 yards--

All right, you gotta fucking tell me.

Go back in my convoy ’cause these idiots are starting

and we’re gonna push on through.

Hey, come here, you!

My main fear is not being a good leader.

I got guys, and the army has entrusted me

with their lives.

And if I make a bad call, their lives are on the line.

Fucking Christ.

Bravo. One.

Any signs of fucking body parts or anything?

I don’t smell burning dead guy.

No.

Usually--usually get a leg bone or something.

Yeah.

Usually the femur’s left, you know?

We’re at Taji here.

Our convoy got pulled in.

Uh, we got hit with an IED, uh,

we have an injured TCN driver.

Waiting on medics to come now.

The TCNs are Third Country Nationals.

They can be anything from Pakistanis to Filipinos

to Turks to Egyptians.

Let’s go look at the guy that’s injured.

How are you feeling? You okay?

Let’s look at your leg here.

Let’s look at your leg here.

Right there is probably some shrap metal in his leg.

The medics are coming in now. There they are.

Most of them don’t speak English,

so if they’re ever hurt,

we’ve really got no way of communicating with them.

There’s such a language barrier.

This is un-fucking-believable.

This is the kind of shit we deal with.

This truck left the yard like this.

And this driver’s expected to drive a vehicle

with no windows and no windshield.

You know why?

’Cause he’s not KBR.

’Cause he’s not worth enough to this operation

for him to have any kind of safety whatsoever.

He’s a Third Country National trying to make a living.

We’re at the Iraqi Highway Patrol Headquarters

in downtown Baghdad.

There’s a lot of progress being made here

as far as training and-- and recruiting and...

uh, you know, arming them with--

with weapons and...

Needless to say,

the insurgency doesn’t like that.

Working with the Iraqi police guys.

Part of the strategic approach

that’s set by President Bush is

kinda shift the burden, of running the country,

protecting it, to the Iraqis.

Faster we train, the better for the overall mission,

and the sooner we can all go home.

He said, "Let me take off this vest because--"

-No! -Can’t do it.

Hey, Smiley.

Tell him we can’t!

He’s not gonna say, "Hey, so Zakawi,

you wait, I take my vest off, then I shoot you!"

Are you--

Come on, come on, come on.

Serious!

Elbows in, cheek to--

Hey, ADD, look at me, motherfucker.

Yes, yes.

Breathe. Squeeze.

He’s not having a baby.

What the fuck are you shooting at, man?

What the fuck, huh?

Lookit, I guarantee it-- take the fucking thing off,

I bet you still can’t hit--

Take it off!

Don’t tell me!

Now let me see what the fuck.

You better hit it!

-Fuck. -Uh, no.

Cameraman, huh?

Okay.

-Okay? Thank you. -Thank you.

Thank you for the shout-out to my mom.

Bazzi, Bazzi, look.

Are you scared?

They’re not gonna cut your head off, Ahmed.

It was the deadliest insurgent attack

in a wave of violence that swept across Iraq today.

A suicide bomber killed at least 16 Iraqi policemen

at a station near a U.S. Marine base

in Baghdad in Western Iraq.

Many dead in Baghdad.

Forty-two dead and 140 injured.

-No fucking way. -Including 10 U.S. soldiers.

-Is that 10 dead or 10 injured? -Don’t know.

But we hit the milestone of 1,000 dead!

Why the fuck they call that a milestone, I have no idea.

You think they said milestone?

One thousand, that’s a fucking milestone?

Everybody’s expendable.

Do I think we’re making progress?

No. I don’t know.

I think any country should be allowed

to have its own civil war

without people getting in the way.

But I also believe that there are

some pretty dangerous people in Iraq.

I wanna see this fight.

Let’s get a look at the contenders

before we go in there.

In this corner.

Look at him there.

Oh, yeah.

He’s ready.

And who’s this guy?

That’s Fred.

-Fred? -Yeah, keep the lights on.

Bang! Oh, boy.

Who’s your money on, Warren?

Well, last time, the spider was pretty fucking quick.

This is gonna be a battle.

Oh, shit!

I don’t know, the last scorpion died

when the spider bit it in the face.

What are they waiting on, then?

Attack!

Yeah! Oh, shit!

Oh!

Oh, he drew blood.

-Where? Where’s he bleeding? -On the spider.

Oh, oh, oh, oh!

Geez!

This is great.

There we go.

So now he gets the tank, right, Warren?

Yup!

He’s like, "Yeah, this is my bitch now."

Just goes to show you there’s always a bigger badass.

Ah, whatever. I quit.

Like in my company, it’s a bunch of white guys

from New Hampshire,

and literally, besides one or two guys,

everybody else thinks the same way.

That’s not an accident or a coincidence.

That’s just groupthink taking effect, you know?

I think five guys outta the whole company

did not vote for Bush.

And they probably kept it low.

If you’re a guy, you know, the whole Bush, macho,

"let’s kick ass" thing sounds pretty good.

All right, we’re back here at the cache

for the second time tonight!

Hileman got hit with the IED.

We got facial injuries here.

Let’s go.

The blast knocked me into the truck.

When I did become alert, the first thought in my head,

I could feel the blood running down my face.

I only need one person in here, and I need a stretcher.

"How fucked up am I?" You know what I mean?

How bad are these wounds?

You know, really couldn’t tell.

The thoughts started becoming just more anger and pissed off

that I got hit, and, you know, 9 out of 10 times,

most ambush-type incidents are IEDs,

and you can’t do shit about it.

There’s no way to defend it.

Lucky to be alive, all these guys.

All right, this is, uh...

This is a depressing place to be.

This is the equipment graveyard here at Anaconda.

Every one of these pieces of equipment that’s damaged

has a story behind it, and you can imagine the story.

There’s someone’s father.

Or someone’s mother.

That was somebody’s-- somebody’s son.

Or daughter.

Whew.

It goes on and on and on.

Um, you know, I support George Bush and everything,

but for him to say that major combat operations are over

kinda conflicts with what we’re seeing

and dealing with every day.

Downtown, Die Hard City.

Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops

are steeling themselves for a possible all-out assault

in the stronghold of Fallujah.

As heavily outnumbered resistance gunmen

vow to fight to the death,

analysts fear this could be Iraq’s Alamo.

All right, today is Thursday, November 18th,

10 in the morning.

First Platoon has been assigned MSR patrol in Fallujah.

Hold at the base, hold at the base...

Hey, dude, look at this.

Look at this terrain all around us.

Just look at this madness.

What’s that Forbidden Zone

from the original Planet of the Apes?

Oh. We’re in the wrong area,

all the action’s taking place somewhere else.

Every time you hear a boom, somebody’s going to heaven.

Or hell.

-Hey, Astor. -What?

Kinda face due west a little more.

Your ass crack is right in my face, and...

I think that’s more of a threat to my health

and mental well-being than...

Exactly.

Point your weapon at Fallujah.

Can we build a wall around the country and leave?

Wall? Just leave it alone and leave.

Fuck the oil, man. Fuck that.

Not worth it.

I’ll walk everywhere in the U.S.

I’ll recycle everything, dammit!

I’ll even drive a Honda Insight.

Little hybrid thingies.

See, lookit, you’re the reason why we always go to war, Bauer.

You and your little Ford F1000s.

Redneck fuck.

I can’t haul anything with a Honda Insight.

How often you gotta throw all 16 bags

of fucking Budweiser cans out?

Everybody wants safety, right?

"Ooh, my kids, I want ’em safe."

So they buy more SUVs.

Well then, the people without SUVs say,

"Holy shit, if I get hit by an SUV,

my kids are gonna be crushed.

So, I want safety, so I’m gonna buy an SUV."

Buy a Volvo if you’re worried, Bazzi.

Oh, everybody’s worried about safety, man.

I’m not.

As long as I have a full-sized truck with a frame,

I’m not scared.

In fact, we’re so worried about safety,

that’s why we’re here.

Make sure we have safety in the U.S.

Okay, so we’re here in the city of Fallujah.

There’s not much left of this place.

And stuff’s going boom.

Marines are probably shooting at something.

You know, I’m sure a lot of guys lost their lives here.

So I kinda feel a little guilty coming in here

and--and, uh, taking pictures and...

You guys hear small arms fire?

Did anybody clear those rooms yet?

-Negative. -Okay.

We’re not gonna get them.

Sergeant Smith is down?!

Smith is down.

Is there anything behind me?

All right, I’m movin’!

Where’s the fire coming from?

-Where’s the fire coming from? -I don’t know!

If I back up, can you get...

What the--

Guys, what can I do?

Where can I get (unintelligible)?

Jesus!

Is there anybody behind me?

There they are!

Right there!

Corner of that building!

Ready? Go forward!

There they are! Light ’em up!

That’s it! Cease fire!

Cease fire!

He’s down!

Get Smith, where’s Smith?

Get Smith!

Get him!

Gah, shit.

November 29th.

Sergeant Smith from First Squad got shot in the leg.

The round entered his calf

and blew out the front of his shin,

shattering the bone, exposing flesh

and fat and muscle,

like hot pizza cheese sliding from the slice.

All the blood over there.

Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s where he was shot right there.

Our patrol shift came on,

and we were immediately sent out to the area

where the firefight occurred.

Our job was to keep an eye on the bodies

until the toe-taggers showed up.

Yeah, this is where the guy got cut in half with a .50 cal.

Well, it was quick.

Not really.

Got shot in the legs.

For nine months, I had never seen these guys face to face.

I mean, I heard the bullets crack over my head,

I’d seen the IEDs and the mortars

and the VBIEDs and all that go off.

Hey, look, he dropped his AK rounds.

I felt, you know, proud for the job that they--

the guys in 1st Squad did.

I felt jealous that it wasn’t us.

We weren’t able to-- to get those guys

and kill ’em.

I, uh, decided that I needed to film these guys.

I’d scan the bodies with the camera,

and I had a few choice words for ’em.

I basically said, you know, it was--

"I’m glad they’re dead."

That’s one less guy that we’ve got

that’s gonna fire an RPG at a--at a Humvee, you know?

So I hand in the tapes.

Someone said the, uh, the first sergeant was--

was, "visually upset" or "physically upset"

or something--I don’t know, maybe that means he was--

his stomach got sick or something, I’m not sure.

Um.

But it was deemed unappropriate footage.

You know, maybe, probably because of my commentary

while filming, you know?

But, I mean, if we’re trained to--

to shoot our weapons and kill these guys,

how do you expect us to talk?

What do you want me to say?

You know, "Oh, geez, I’m sorry, you--" I don’t know.

At one point a dog came along,

and there was like human flesh kinda around the body,

and the dog, you know, picked up some flesh

and started eating.

And I didn’t see a problem with it.

And neither did any of the guys we were with.

You know?

I didn’t care about that.

And I guess, after the fact, you know,

the command wanted me to shoot the dog or--

or do something like that, but I’m sorry,

we never got briefed on shooting a dog

or what to do about that.

And at the same rate,

I don’t care what the dog’s eating, you know?

Good for him.

I hope he fills his belly.

We need to get everything ready, ’cause we need to go.

You looking at your cool doll, Matthew?

Oh, sorry, it’s a G.I. Joe

-or Special Ops or whatever? -It’s a G.I. Joe!

Daddy said that’s got all the stuff that he’s got.

Pretty cool, huh?

Whoa, slippery!

Sing, "Jingle bells, jingle bells,

jingle all the way!"

When Mike first went over there,

we just told Matthew he was gonna go

and beat up the bad guys.

There’s my school!

And then, at daycare one day,

a little girl there said,

"You know, people get killed over there."

-Bye! -Bye!

It just completely freaked him out.

Like, "Is Daddy gonna die?"

And, you know, it was really, really hard for him.

But I’m afraid, I’m afraid for Mike.

Hey, it’s Randi.

Just wanted to let you know about J. Jill.

Three-month buyer’s a size 2X or 22 and above.

You hear the horror stories

of people from Vietnam that come back.

He likes to play macho sometimes,

like it hasn’t really affected him,

but I know that it has.

He has seen so much.

We were headed north

doing a convoy escort out of Anaconda.

Normally we’re lead vehicle,

but in this convoy we were the 10th truck back.

This is--this is crazy going this fast through here.

Yeah.

Yeah, you see? Fucking moron.

These people will run out in front of anything.

It was pitch black out.

This vehicle come out aggressively,

and I started to think to myself,

"This guy’s not gonna pull out in front of us."

Sure enough, he did.

You fucking asshole!

He pulled out close enough where I stood up

and got my weapon ready,

and, uh, he went right across the front of our Humvee

and pulled into the shoulder.

Just as that happened,

I heard Specialist Baril scream, "Oh my God!"

I snapped forward.

I saw a young woman stepping out

from the same direction the truck came from.

We heard the--the crash,

of her body hitting the Humvee.

As I opened up my door to get out quickly

to open up the back door to get my CLS bag,

the worst thing of my life... I saw.

I’m like, "Oh, my God."

The convoy trucks were barreling at 50 miles an hour.

They didn’t even see us pull over--

coming up the line.

And this woman was laying directly in their path.

And she was unconscious.

It’s a fucking girl, and she’s, uh...

She’s in pieces right now,

and they just dragged her out of the road.

She ran out in front of us.

Ugh.

There’s pieces of her head over there,

for Christ’s sake.

Un-fucking-believable.

Baril, don’t look at it, bud.

You’re good.

Stay cool, all right?

I remember looking down, and I see crumbled cookies.

Like, ugh, God.

She was carrying cookies,

and it was spread all over the MSR.

Hey, you got gloves in the CLS bag?

I thought of my mother.

It was next door to a mosque.

Then they started the prayer over the speaker.

I don’t know if it was her dignity or what--I...

We had to get her out of the road--

get what was left out of the road.

I will remember that for the rest of my life.

That guy rolling the body onto the body bag

and zipping her up.

The Iraqi people are who we’re there to help,

and we just killed one of them.

It will be a better country in 20 years

because we were there.

I hope.

-Do we know who she is? -Negative.

-We don’t know who she is? -No ID?

The Combat Infantryman’s Badge

provides special recognition

of the unique role of the Army infantryman,

the only soldier whose daily mission

is to close with and destroy the enemy

and to seize and hold terrain.

A Combat Infantryman’s Badge

is something many of us have dreamt about

since we were kids.

You see a soldier with a CIB,

you look at him, you think,

"Geez, what he must’ve seen,"

or "What he must’ve done to earn that CIB."

When I get home, the war stories start,

do I have something to defend?

Did I not experience war

because I did not console my buddy as he died in my arms?

Did I not experience enough combat,

because I still want nothing more

than to kill insurgents at a range close enough

that I can see them fall to the ground and die?

Woo!

All right, we’re getting on the C-130.

This is the last time we’ll be in Iraq.

When we get off, we’ll be out of the country.

The captain just came on,

said we’re about 20 minutes from Fort Dix.

We’re all pretty tired right now.

On behalf of this entire flight crew,

it’s been a pleasure serving you today.

Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened.

Welcome home!

Welcome back.

-Sir. How are ya? -Thank you.

I--I swore to God that I was gonna get down and kiss--

kiss the ground like a lot of people do,

but I had my two weapons with me in my assault pack

and I was so exhausted.

Everybody was so, so exhausted.

Hey!

I guess you could say this is the culmination

of our deployment.

It’s time to get back into the civilian world.

Hey, man, is there any way I could get you

to turn this radio up, just a little bit?

Make my dream come alive

Oh, yeah

I’m caught up in a dream

I’m gonna wish for it all

No one’s gonna tell me how

No way, this is my dream now

I’m caught up in what seems

simply impossible

I ain’t gonna change a thing

No way...

Welcome home, ass-weasels!

-Welcome home! -Welcome back.

Great to see you, welcome home!

Where’s my wife?

It’s a long way to Tipperary

It’s a long, long way to Tipperary

But my heart’s right there

Are you kidding?

Daddy, let’s have some candy!

I’m ready to start flicking the channels.

And not watch a damn thing, just flick.

Ah.

I’m tired.

-It’s been a long day. -Yeah.

What are we gonna do tonight?

-This. -We’re gonna snuggle?

Watch a movie?

Maybe we should buy 50 pounds of chocolate bars.

Yes!

Ooh, we’re all gonna get bloated and unattractive tonight!

Ow.

They could offer me $500,000,

and I would not go back there.

It’s like saying, "If I gave you $500,000

for your son to never see you again,

would you take it?"

I’m so glad I went.

I hated it with a God-awful passion,

and I will not go back.

I have done my part,

and I feel like it’s someone else’s turn.

My views of the war haven’t changed.

You’ve heard people say, you know,

"We’re over there for the oil," you know?

"That’s the only reason we’re in Iraq,

it’s oil, it’s oil, it’s oil!"

Well, listen, no.

We’re not there for the oil.

If it were for oil,

would that not be enough reason to go to Iraq?

You bet your ass it would be.

If you took oil away from this country tomorrow,

what do you think would happen to this country?

It would be-- it would be devastating.

So let’s all stop crying about whether we had reason

to go in there or not,

because we could fight about that forever.

It’s a done deal, we’re in Iraq.

Support what it takes to make this thing work

or shut up.

We hired Mike probably three or four months

before he was called away to duty.

We had explained to him: when you come back,

it’s gonna be like you never left

when you walk back through the door again.

Me and you, we’ll go in there

and we’ll finish the paint work on that.

By the time we’re done with that,

it’ll be time to go home and--

Yeah.

-Time to drink beer? -Time to have a couple beers.

Whiskey.

I was at the V.A. yesterday.

One of the biggest things

that’s driving me crazy is my hands.

I used to sit in the turret

and hold onto my SAW, my weapon.

Over time, my hands would go numb.

It didn’t hurt, it’d just get really numb.

They told me it’s carpal tunnel.

And the vibrating tools’ll make it worse.

I have some appointments set up--

uh, physical therapy and occupational therapy

for my neck and back,

and my whole back was in knots

because of the body armor.

All I know is...it hurts,

and I take about 3200 mg of ibuprofen a day,

and, uh, you know,

that usually doesn’t work at this point.

I, like, think I got used to it.

How are you, gentlemen?

Thank you for coming out.

Mike rejoined us after more than a year of Iraq,

and being shot at and...

Today is the anniversary of the worst day of my life.

Is that the day you got hung up on an ambush?

I just realized that.

There’s gotta be 50 or 60 guys shooting at you,

and--and there’s mortars:

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

My frustration, coming back, is I go to work,

and I talk to guys, and they don’t care.

I think it’s they don’t understand.

I earned my CIB in my first day.

Somebody will even ask me a question:

"Geez, do you have any pictures?"

And--and I will say, "Sure."

I’ll take out some pictures, and I’ll start to show them.

They’ll, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," and I’m like--

I wanna grab them by the throat

and say, "You will look at my effing pictures.

You asked me to look at them,

okay, I’m not going around showing ’em off to everybody,

you asked me to look at them.

Give me the goddamn respect of looking at my pictures.

Do you have any idea what I’ve done?"

If I gave them 10 minutes to feel that fear...

that loneliness, and that sacrifice,

they might pay a little bit more attention.

-See you later. -All right.

He’s not the same person anymore, he’s not.

He had really worked on his temper.

Before he went to Iraq, he was great!

He was so much calmer than me,

and just being in Iraq,

his temper’s just--it’s back.

We have actually had flashbacks.

We were driving,

and I saw a spider on the window,

and went...

...and he just completely freaked out.

He had a flashback,

he thought he was gonna hit somebody,

and then he just had a flashback of them

hitting the woman, and just got very upset,

and he’s like, "Don’t ever do that again,"

and we would up getting into an argument about it.

What him and I struggle with is

he so badly wants me to understand

what he went through.

I will never understand,

just as he will never understand what I went through.

Sometimes I feel like he doesn’t live in reality.

He so badly wants to be okay

that he’s just gonna believe that,

and everything will be fine.

I took a vow with him-- for better, for worse,

sickness and in health, till death do us part.

I don’t wanna get out of that!

There are days that I don’t like him, absolutely,

there are days I don’t like him.

But I still love him.

Give me the hugs.

I just can’t imagine my life without him,

I just can’t.

You love Dada?

Thank you, appreciate it, guys.

Glad to see you.

Compared to what they were or--

-No. -No?

I don’t wanna tell people what it was like over there.

It’s a fucking mess, you know?

I went over there and did the job I was supposed to do.

People tend to ask some ignorant questions.

You know, "Did you kill anybody?"

Um, "What’s it like over there?"

Or, "When do you have to go back?"

That woman?

She was like, "Hey, it’s good to have you home."

-You like that? -That was, like, just right.

-I know-- -That’s all you need to say,

-you know? -Yeah, that’s it.

Well, people don’t know what to say, I think.

That, that’s exactly what you say.

Sometimes I don’t know what to say.

Yeah, but, you know,

we’ve got plenty of other things to talk about.

Yeah, we do.

We have decisions to make.

What do you mean?

Oh, nothing serious.

Look at--look at the look!

-Like what, like jobs? -Calm down.

-Yeah. -Yeah, we’ll get jobs.

I like the engagement ring.

I mean, the promise ring.

Whoa, it’s not either one of those.

I like that ring that’s on her--

-her ring finger. -Yeah.

-She likes the ring. -It’s pretty.

-Yeah. -It’s a vacation ring.

Wait, what’s a vacation ring?

I don’t know, like you could--

So does that mean you’re gonna get me one

for Portland, too?

You coulda just, like, gone to Italy on a whim

-with, like, any random guy. -Yeah.

And you woulda gotten that.

-That’s like... -What?

-You make no sense. -No, I guess not.

Stephen has changed a lot since he’s come back from Iraq.

I don’t know why he says everything’s fine,

because it’s not.

Why the fuck are we there?

We better get that oil, right?

The U.S. Army is not the fucking Peace Corps.

The Marines are not the Peace Corps,

that’s not why we’re in Iraq.

We’re in Iraq for money and oil.

Look at any other war in the history of the world,

and tell me it’s not about money.

This better be about money,

and if we don’t get that oil and that money,

then all the lives that are gone right now--

what’s it, 1,800 it’s at?

Something around there?

They’re all in vain.

But you don’t put 150,000 troops

from all over the country in there

and say we’re there to create democracy.

We’re there to create money, you know?

We’re there to make money, for us, you know?

Somebody other than Dick Cheney

better be getting their hands on it pretty soon.

He can’t sleep nights.

He won’t say it’s nightmares, but I know they are.

I’m locked into the V.A.

I went there,

and, I don’t know, they say I got asthma

and hearing loss

and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Which is all right, I mean, I don’t know.

I...

Yeah, reel it in.

Oh, hey, hey, hey, hey! Stop.

He doesn’t like to talk about it.

-This reel’s broken. -It’s not broken.

I feel like he thinks if he doesn’t talk about it

then he’ll forget about it.

It’s still there and it still hurts,

and I still feel it.

And I wanna cry a lot.

-Dog tags? -Wear ’em.

Yeah, I don’t know why.

-Can I see? -Yeah, they’re still on.

-Do you know why? -I don’t know.

I just haven’t taken ’em off, that’s all.

Do I hope and wish that we’re together in 20 years?

Yeah.

I have no clue if we’re gonna be together in two weeks.

Good evening, Mom.

Don’t leave.

I wanna hug him for one year and half.

Okay, Mom.

All right, Mom. It’s not a big deal.

Oh, not big--oh, my God.

-Sixteen months not big? -Mom.

-So... -Oh.

The Patriots won.

Probably gonna go see Jim after this.

Now?

Well, I just got to stop by, say hello.

No, call him, he’ll come over.

-He’ll come here. -I’ll give him a call.

Yeah, please.

Don’t tell me you’re gonna go any place now.

I never thought in my life,

for 16 months I have in my mind Iraq day and night.

Sixteen months, day and night,

Iraq in my head.

Ah!

Wake up, Iraq.

Close my eyes, Iraq.

Okay.

He always smart.

And handsome.

Ah, he doesn’t like that, I know.

I like to say he’s smart and handsome,

he like it or not, what’s he gonna do?

Shoot me?

He’s not emotional like me, especially lately.

He doesn’t like me to be emotional, too.

I think the army has to do something with it.

He was soldier for too long, and he saw a lot.

Do you think he’ll go back to Iraq?

I hope not.

Just young people get killed for nothing.

Nothing gonna change.

God willing...

Good afternoon.

I’d like to welcome you all.

What’s gonna take place today

is you’re gonna become a citizen of the United States.

I’ve always wanted to be a soldier.

It’s not because--to make me more of an America

or to legitimize me more in somebody else’s eyes.

-Please stand. -I personally don’t feel

the need to legitimize myself

to a civilian who’s never served.

Please raise your right hand.

In fact, I would laugh if somebody said that to me.

I think a good American will always love their country

and be suspicious of their government.

-"I..." -I, Zaher Muhammed Bazzi...

...that each of the individuals

who just took the oath of allegiance

is now a citizen of the United States of America.

Most soldiers, they wanna think

that they’re there for a good cause.

Something noble.

You’re fighting for freedom and everything that’s right.

It was tough, because you have to do

some not-so-nice things sometimes.

I remember, one time my platoon became attached

to a different military police battalion,

and the orders was that nobody is allowed on this road.

There’s, like, a hospital on one side,

and a lot of people live on the other.

Obviously, it became very apparent

that I was the one that spoke their language.

This guy comes up and is...

he’s like, "I got a sick baby.

Can I just cross the road to go to the hospital?"

And we’re a disciplined army, so we had to say no, but...

that didn’t make any tactical sense.

It got to the point where I stopped translating,

because the squad leader’d come up to me:

"Hey, well, tell this guy he, uh...

he can’t take his sick baby to the hospital."

I’m like, "You know what? I’m not gonna do that.

Just--you tell him."

And, "Well, we’re just following orders."

"I know, but I don’t wanna translate."

If the colonel wanna do it,

he can come down himself and do it.

It goes against why we’re there.

It goes against a lot of our beliefs

and the value system we operate under

as American soldiers.

There’s a big demand now for patriotism and flags

and yellow ribbons and...

I got my living off the war

by going there and getting a paycheck,

and the guy that makes the yellow ribbons,

which is the biggest fashion fad nowadays,

makes his living off of it,

and Caterpillar makes living off of it,

and the companies that make the smart bombs

that we drop on those guys make a living off of it.

And the Humvee company makes a living out of it,

and you guys are making a living off it.

It’s just, I don’t really look at it as something...

more than that, I suppose.

I love being a soldier.

The only bad thing about the army is

you can’t pick your war.