Wampum

Dinner and a (war) movie

I don't know if it's my age (d/o/b 1964) or undergraduate field of study (modern US diplomatic history, specifically Southeast Asia), but I can't shake the feeling that Iraq War = Vietnam. I realize that critic after critic will tell me, no, they're not at all the same, but I remain unconvinced. This morning's WaPo feature didn't help this frame of mind:

In Fallujah, Marines Feel Shock of War
'We Knew When We Got to the South We Were Going to Get Pounded'
By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 14, 2004; Page A31

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 13 -- On his first night in the city, Sgt. Aristotel Barbosa slept uneasily on the floor near the door of a vacant house that his Marine unit had taken over. A squad leader in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, Barbosa had been prepared for the worst when U.S. and Iraqi forces began storming into Fallujah on Monday night.

Instead, the slight 26-year-old from Southern California was surprised to find fighters in the city putting up little resistance. By Thursday night, U.S. troops had taken control of the northern half of Fallujah, which lies about 35 miles west of Baghdad, and Barbosa was feeling optimistic about the battle when he woke up Friday. He decided not to shave, figuring things would be over soon enough. "I'm thinking and hoping that it's not that bad," he said, recalling his mood at the time.

But for many Marine and Army units, the battle for Fallujah was only beginning.

Barbosa and his squad set off on foot at 7:40 a.m. Friday following a slow-moving column of Marine infantrymen heading east just below the main highway that divides northern and southern Fallujah.

As he trudged through the desolate, rubble-filled streets, Barbosa said he remembered thinking how bad the city looked, worse than he had imagined. "Basically every house has a hole through it," he said.

Then the unease hit again. "All the squad leaders and myself, we knew when we got to the south we were going to get pounded."

As they began the turn south, gunfire burst from a mosque in front of them. Another platoon began shooting back, and Barbosa led his squad around to the side. "The whole company kept pushing, and we started getting hit from the other side of the street," he said.

Gunfire tore through an aluminum gate when the squad passed a house. Barbosa said he felt a sting in his right bicep. He had been shot. Two other members of his squad were wounded within minutes of each other, including Lance Cpl. Matthew Vetor, 21, who was hit in the lower back just under his flak jacket.

"It was like a whole block of insurgents," Barbosa said Saturday while recuperating with Vetor in a Navy field hospital at a military outpost near the city. "They started throwing grenades at us. It was like a shock. I couldn't believe I got hurt. I went two more blocks. I couldn't believe it."

Since most of my memories of the Vietnam conflict were colored by the lens of childhood (I was 11 when the scene at the US Embassy in Saigon took place, pictured here at the left,) my perception of the events have been dramatically influenced by the flurry of movies produced in the war's aftermath. While many of the films of the 1970's focused on the plight of returning vets, beginning in 1978 with The Deer Hunter, followed by Apocalypse Now (1979), Vietnam films began to show the more graphic, and brutal, nature of the war.

So for those readers who are younger than I, here are a few of the better Vietnam era "war" films (please note, Rambo I thru XI are not on the list, and neither is Eric's cult favorite, Predator:

There are also a few non-Vietnam films which document the conditions under which our soldiers now battle, including Black Hawk Down, Enemy at the Gates, Band of Brothers, The Thin Red Line, Courage Under Fire and the now banned Saving Private Ryan.

Posted by MB Williams at November 14, 2004 08:01 AM | TrackBack