FREE FILM: The War Tapes

Monday, January 22, at 6pm in the Program Room.

This internationally recognized film gleans an intimate portrait of the Iraq restructuring effort, straight from the front lines. Filmed by three National Guardsmen, who were given camcorders specifically for the purpose, throughout their respective tours, The War Tapes is a soldier's-eye view of the conflict. A view that includes the disparate, ever-widening gulf between cultures. Watch American soldiers, perhaps the truest patriots, as they become embittered at the situation: Watch them transfer their frustrations to Iraqi civilians in an exacerbating antagonism of repeated social foibles and misperceptions.

This disease--the symptoms of which we are all familiar--only worsens. In fact, it self-propogates!

See how these problems are reinforced through the ranks, as prejudice and anger take the place of reason and truth.

In order for this effort to be successful, the American troops are going to have to be more Muslim than the Iraqis American! And any general knows--you must know your enemy. And yet, we are creating enemies because we do not know, or respect, the culture we're trying to "democratize." We have kids who don't know a single Arabic word, fighting--and interacting with civilains--in an Arabic-speaking country. Would you send your son to the Congo wihtout knowing a modicum of French?

Who is in charge here?

That's the one question you're left with.