Filmmakers Alice and Lincoln Day feature several expert talking-heads who guide the narrative matter-of-factly through our various assaults on the lands in which we wage war. It's not an entertaining documentary, it doesn't use animation or clever editing to engage. It has facts and visual evidence on its side. And if the melted faces of children affected by Agent Orange or the landmine-mangled foot of an elephant doesn't viscerally affect you, then you have a harder heart than mine.
A statistic the film cites is that prior to the past hundred years 90 percent of war victims were combatants and 10 percent were civilians. Now it is the reverse, with 90 percent of victims being civilians to 10 percent actual combatants. The total body counts may be lower, but the documentary makes clear the human costs of spreading "freedom." In addition there's the toll on our coral reefs, water supply, soil, air and just about everything else we need to sustain life on Earth. There's a cringe-worthy moment of footage of a U.S. armed forces official selling the natives around Bikini Atoll on their important contribution to humanity in allowing nuclear bomb tests near their homes.
It becomes clear that people in these conflict areas don't hate us, as Bush said, because of our freedom, they hate us because we're assholes. We seem to have a bad habit of bombing, consuming resources, salting the earth and moving on. The film doesn't look to place blame on our men and women in the armed services, but does shine a light on economic policies that put them there. With documentaries like this, it's getting harder and harder for our government to sell war as the humanitarian act of liberation. If you have to see the proof for yourself, the images are here and they're not easy to look at.
The film is being aired locally around the country, is available for screenings and on DVD. For more information visit www.scarredlandsfilm.orgPhoto Credit: Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives
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