Must-See Video: The Iraq War in 8 Minutes (BBC/Guardian)

The video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/video/page/0,,1927660,00.html

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003286588

A new video shot for a London newspaper and the BBC by an embed with the U.S. Army, suggests, in chilling words and images, the absurd position of the U.S. in Iraq, as the people we try to train -- you know, our comrades in arms -- seem more intent on lobbing grenades at us.

By Greg Mitchell

(October 22, 2006) -- Over the years, I have made few requests of readers of this column, beyond hinting that, maybe, you ought to return here from time to time. But now I have to urge you to drop everything, finish reading this come-on, and then link to the video described below. It’s the most revealing little (eight-minute) video I’ve seen yet on our country’s preposterous position in Iraq.

Aptly, it is titled, "Iraq: The Real Story." It won’t turn your stomach, in fact, you may even chuckle in spots (like you might have done in reading much of “Catch-22”). But, hopefully, you will end up screaming at the computer screen.

<snip>

Blackout. New scene. “24 hours on and the marriage of the Americans and the Iraqis looks headed for the rocks,” the narrator explains. We see maybe a dozen Iraqis kneeling on a porch, their hands bound behind them, in custody. Insurgents? Al-Qaeda terrorists? Maybe, at least, those black marketeers? Alas, no. Things have got so bad “the Americans are raiding the offices of the Iraqi Army, their allies, the people they are training.”

Then we see our allies blindfolded and hauled away. Believe me, this image may stay with you awhile as a symbol of the entire war effort.