Viewing Reality

One of the ironies about the Iraq War is that despite being the most heavily televised war in the history of mankind, the average American knows virtually nothing of what happened there. This is because while the media had access to troops, reporters largely stayed close to their hotels and weren’t on the frontlines. In addition to that, networks (including cable) ran with sanitized images, never lasting for more than the few seconds that needed for their sound bite.

Recently, I’ve been able to watch several videos shot by Pat Dollard, a former Hollywood agent who became an imbedded reporter. The videos he shot are raw, full of coarse language (he’s with Marines, after all), and violence (as it is a war). When I watched the first few videos, I was struck at how intense it was…and I had only watched about 45 minutes. Our troops dealt with this for hours, day in and day out.

You can watch some of the clips at his website here and he’s starting to air episodes of his documentary, Young Americans, on the Big Hollywood website, here. There is obviously a very big content warning. It should not be viewed by minors. Graphically (at least in the videos I’ve seen to date), it’s about on par with movies such as Black Hawk Down. The difference is that this is real, not a movie.