Generation Kill

[cabal23]

Ironically it seems when it comes to military films on any subject, someone will always say that is unrealistic, untrue, one sided, yada yada yada. Everyone has a "I was there or know someone who was there" story. Lets face it if military films were realistic it would be about Marines repairing humvees, standing around BS'ing, and standing hours of watch. If you can't compress a great story into film and make it interesting for everyone who would view, you would not have a successful movie. I would disagree that there were any untruths or exaggerations in Hurt Locker having read Eight Lives Down, they matched up quite well. And Hurt Locker wasn't a true story, just adapted obviously from soldiers accounts. I suppose what matters is the soul of the film, and Hurt Locker showed an amazing soul that didn't feel contrived.

[Vark]

When watching Live leak (formerly Ogrish) and other sites, context is everything. Ken Tout in his memoirs recalls the reaction to a German Panzer brewing up. "Burn you buggers, burn" are we suggesting he is a sociopath? I'm sure if these alternative media outlets had been available in previous theatres of war then we would have had similar scenes, but most would not be/or have been a celebration of the death of a human but the reverse, a celebration that the soldier is alive because a threat has been removed. It is in essence a release after enduring serious stress and fatigue, I have seen video gamers react like this after 'killing' a particularly troublesome and threatening AI "Boss".

Liberal critics of both recent conflicts have jumped on these video clips as proof of their theories that soldiers are only soldiers because they are too stupid to do anything else, or it allows the sociopaths a hiding place from 'civilised' society. They conveniently ignore the fact that these clips are often the end result of a whole chain of events, which when viewed explain the event being watched. The classic "Massacre of innocent Iraqi farmers" at night by murderous Apache pilots, when watched in its entirety (9 mins versus 1 min) clearly showed the Iraqi's pacing out the distances between arms caches. In one version the Iraqi trying to use an RPG/SA-&7? was edited.

My own take on the Generation Kill depiction, having read the book and seen some of the episodes is that the unit in question, being the tip of the spear might be allowed some odd-ball characters. History shows, some of the most quirky, eccentric characters made the most effective 'special forces' soldiers, read about some of the LRDG soldiers and you see quite a few similarities with the units in Generation Kill.

[daisy]

Lets assume that GK is completely accurate.

IMO the events depicted therein reflect accurately the stresses that combat soldiers face, be it as a result of enemy action or because of leadership or supply issues. Despite incidents where civilians might or might not have been killed in suspicious circumstances the bottom line is that the Geneva Convention was for the most part honoured.

To those that complain about certain things that were done in a certain way, let them ask the hypothethical question - if the USA or UK or France or whatever were invaded by lets say Iraq or North Korea or any other 'rogue' state, would there have higher or lower civilian casualties? Would the hypothethical invading countries media laws even allow their soldiers to post videos on the net?

I am not from a Nato or Allied country.

[Clavicula_Nox]

I'm not sure, but what are we talking about in this thread? GK being accurate? COIN effectiveness? Realities of war?

[DaveDash]

I'm not sure, but what are we talking about in this thread? GK being accurate? COIN effectiveness? Realities of war?

Welcome to the internet. I predict in three pages we will be comparing everybody else to Nazis, in four pages time we will be discussing the pros/cons of piracy, and in five pages time we will be having a Mac vs PC debate, and then finally we'll be arguing over thin vs curved women.