(2008) In 2006 Veterans for Peace ("Bring Them Home Now"), marching from Mobile to New Orleans, draws attention to the connection between the inadequate response of the Bush administration's FEMA and VA for Hurricane Katrina victims and Iraq War veterans, both feeling abandoned; in their "Ride for Freedom," Rolling Thunder's bikers congregate for Memorial Day in Washington, DC, for an in-your-face demand that President Bush take care of the country's vets, reminding the nation not to turn its back once again on its wounded warriors; and the current generation of soldiers in Iraq Veterans Against the War take their message to the citizenry of leaving no soldier behind, wanting their brothers and sisters back home.

Director/writer Donna Bassin interviews Sgt Artie Muller and Army nurses Diane Carlson-Evans and Mary Meeks of Rolling Thunder, MSgt Stan Goff and Cpl David Kline (three Purple Hearts) of Veterans for Peace, Bill Mitchell (Vietnam vet whose son was killed in Iraq), Gold Star Mothers, among others for her documentary film about two generations of veterans coming together in a common cause of supporting the troops but not the mission that sent them off to fight another unnecessary war of bad politics.

Patriotism isn't waving a flag, says Carlson-Evans, who goes to the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in search of a name; real patriotism is being willing to question the government's rationale for sending its young men and women into war. A sign on the side of a vehicle states: "I will forgive Jane Fonda when the Jews forgive Hitler." A Veterans for Peace bus displays: "Impeachment Tour."

As happened during the Vietnam War, its returning (mostly drafted) vets having worn the emotional armor of "It don't mean anything," the all-volunteer army is suffering from similar psychic wounds, largely being ignored and untreated. A veteran of the Iraq War speaks of his regrets - "When am I going to be able to tell my daughter what I did in Iraq?" - and feelings of criminality (killing innocent people), for which he can offer only repentance and atonement through political activism (since Bush and Cheney refuse to be accountable for their actions), awaken others to the fact of the war being wrong. Doing this helps him and others like him deal with what they feel, heal, and get real again.

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

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