(2006) White crosses adorned with American flags and flowers, names of soldiers and Marines who have died in Iraq with messages from family and friends, were carefully arranged on the California beaches of Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Oceanside, and Huntington Beach every Sunday, "temporary cemeteries" in memory of the fallen. (Currently the tributes have become monthly rather than weekly with abbreviated space, since over 4,000 deaths have occurred in Iraq and over 800 more in Afghanistan.) In some locations boots or candles inside red shields are placed at the foot of each cross. One or more flag-draped coffins also appear.

For their documentary film, Sally Marr and Peter Dudar interviewed 105 people - veterans, mothers, fathers, widows, sisters, brothers, friends, children, including Cindy Sheehan, Bill Mitchell, and former commander at Abu Ghraib prison Janis Karpinski - attending the various sites. Mothers of Gold Star Families for Peace speak of not wanting another parent to go through the grief they feel for a lost son or daughter. "My only child," sobs a parent.

Anger over Army recruiters approaching academically challenged students in high school. Veterans of Iraq, Vietnam, and Korea express their sentiments: "We got sold a bill of goods over there," "We're the bad guys," and "Truth needs to be told" vs an amputee's saying, "I'm proud of what I did." A sand sculptor creates a temporary tribute to a pair of GIs. "Fools and hypocrites" a man says of those erecting the display, admitting he was too cowardly to volunteer for military service.

"We supported my sister," says a young woman of her deceased sibling, "but we didn't support the war." Another complains that Bush and Cheney didn't send their daughters to fight, so they can't really understand unless it happens to them. Some call for a resumption of the military draft because the volunteer military has separated the ruling class from those underprivileged without other means of getting to college. Stop-loss is the backdoor draft.

"A different person comes home," often suffering from PTSD. "I don't fit in," complains a veteran, missing a hand. Others express disgust ("treated unfairly … like guinea pigs") with the VA. A walking wounded, hinting at the horror scenes running through his head, says guys over there on psychotropic drugs ("suck it up") man machine guns.

More than a hundred soldiers have committed suicide since 2003. Female soldiers face sexual harassment and rape at the hands of their own male comrades in arms. Jesus would not approve.

"I don't want to fight them in Los Angeles," says a father of four sons who enlisted, three fighting in the Middle East and one in the ground. Others confess to feeling guilty about surviving or shame for what they did. "I feel like I fought for nothing." Or for oil, says a cynic. "Think first of your mother," admonishes a man in military fatigues to anyone watching who may be thinking of enlisting, "because she's going to cry hardest."

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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