Thefilm takes an interesting look at the daily functioning of a white patrioticfamily in America during war time, against the backdrop of quotes frompresidential speeches endorsing the war, congressional speeches on both sidesof the issue and ultimately the congressional vote that allocated the funds forBush’s war against so-called terrorism to start.

Iwanted to see the film because of the praise that it was getting from “progressives,”including broadcasters on the liberal radio station KPFA in the Bay Area. Afterthe film was over, the questions that I kept asking myself were, “Why didn’tthey talk about the Iraqi death toll, at all?” and “What is their stance oncapitalism and imperialism?” I don’t know how you could do a film on the IraqWar without addressing those two points, no matter what position you are goingto take.

Ithought that the filmmakers did a good job at giving a full view of thementalities of the many family members who helped to give Timothy Young’s lifea context. Tim’s mother comes across as a liberal, who at one point starts toquestion imperialism – ironically as she wears a NYPD sweatshirt – right beforeshe is verbally shutdown by her fascist leaning husband.

Wearinga shirt with “army” painted across the chest, her husband consistently,throughout the movie, supports the policies of the Bush regime. Tim’s youngerbrother, who has outdated dreams of coming back a GI Joe war hero, leaves forIraq while his tearful mother and handicapped war veteran big brother see himoff, admittedly scared about his fate. Tim’s wife is shown exhausted; shemarried the man she “loved” with his government imposed handicaps. She looksmore like a nurse than a spouse in the movie as she caters to her husbands manyneeds, helping him attend his full schedule of appointments.

Althoughthis wasn’t my favorite anti-war movie, it had a few scenes which brought thewar home, even to all the potential mercenaries and imperialist collaborators.The message that I gathered from the movie was that the “potential mercenaryattitude” could land you in your very own wheelchair with a catheter in yourpenis, along with your purple heart war trophy. I thought that the film shouldhave looked at the havoc that was brought along internationally, including inIraq, instead of just from the American ethnocentric perspective of a workingclass white family of mercenaries who have aspirations to be American warheroes.

Inone of the most graphic scenes in the film, Tim’s mother inserts a catheterinto his penis, so he could urinate while in a parked van. They have aconversation, where she jokes about getting his piss on her hands, saying “thisisn’t the first time.” In another scene Tim is looking on the internet at waysthat he can get his penis erect, so that he can have sex with his wife. Whilehe is being filmed, he is reading about a process where a chemical is shot intothe penis with a needle. He states how he feels uncomfortable about tryingthat.

Inanother scene, Tim’s wife is seeking advice from a message board for paraplegicveterans about what she and her husband-to-be should do to make sure that Timdoesn’t have any accidents in his tux on the wedding day. And in still anotherscene, the cameras follow Tim to a Washington, D.C., Veterans Against the War hearing,which was broadcast on KPFA as “Winter Soldier 2008,” where he has troublespeaking because of his inability to control his normal bodily functions.

Inthe scenes dealing with the presidential and congressional speeches, it seemedlike Bush and many of the members of Congress had the same speech writers andresearchers – or should I just say puppeteers – considering that on nationaltelevision a number of the Congressional speeches promoting the war mimickedBush’s words verbatim.

“Bodyof War” is a documentary that I think that everybody, especially young people,should see, since they are the ones who are the most susceptible to the emptypromises and lies that the U.S. military throws out when trying to gain newrecruits. But again, I wouldn’t support it economically, because I do not thinkthat the documentary goes far enough.

Ithink that people should be given the tools to question the war ideologicallyinstead of trying to engineer an anti-war sentiment strictly out of emotions,which is what “Body of War” seems to be trying to do. If we fight ideologically,the people will be politically educated enough to see imperialism in the arenaof world politics, whether or not they are privy to the personal and emotionalprofiles that make up the bulk of this film.

“Bodyof War” is an example of a documentary that comes out of the reformist sect ofthe anti-war movement while I sit on the anti-imperialist, anti-occupying armyfront of the anti-war movement. If Tim Young didn’t get shot in the line ofduty, I don’t know if he would have ever looked at the world any differentlyfrom the patriotic American bred mercenary white boy that he was raised to be.

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