MOVIES

Taking The Wraps Off The War

When Phil Donahue met paralyzed Iraq veteran Tomas Young, he was shocked—and angry. So he made a film.

By Sarah Ball | NEWSWEEK
Published Nov 10, 2008

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  • Posted By: wilder @ 11/12/2008 2:18:16 PM

    Why do you want to only film soldiers, who come back bitter at President Bush, how about the many who come back, heal from their injuries and want to go back and fight? People like you are the reason that any war we will fight or have fought since Vietnam, will be so much harder, because we not only have to fight the enemy but have to prove to you that peace has never been possible without fighting for it.

    • Posted By: nawawimohamad @ 11/17/2008 10:10:55 PM

      More American kids went hungry last year
      USDA: Number jumped 50 percent in 2007 ??? that's nearly 700,000 children
      By AP updated 4:23 p.m. ET Nov. 17, 2008
      WASHINGTON - Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year???s sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.
      James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group said the figures show that economic growth during the first seven years of the Bush administration didn???t reach the poorest and hungriest people. ???The people in the deepest poverty are suffering the most,??? Weill said.

    • Posted By: Iconoblaster @ 11/12/2008 5:01:23 PM

      The point being made, Mr wilder, is the price the war is exacting on people who really had no hand in starting it.... and it is BUSH's war.

      • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/13/2008 6:45:36 AM

        he enlisted,he wanted to go,he wanted to KILL ,he got shot,too freaking bad! Now he wants to piss and moan?

        • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/13/2008 9:10:25 AM

          Once again, so much for "supporting the troops".

          Typical Bushie...send 'em off to a useless war, slash the VA's budget to ribbons, and then crap all over wounded soldiers.

    • Posted By: nimodahooligan @ 11/12/2008 4:50:56 PM

      prove that peace is possible without killing (and it is possible, and it has been done) and we can talk. war should never be THE answer, only a last resort, the very bottom of the barrel last resort at that.

      thats one of the biggest reasons i voted for obama...why?

      keep us out of war by talking things out with our enemy
      keep us out of war and you keep 10 billion dollars a month that our ailing economy could really use
      keep us out of war and we get to keep our brothers, sisters, moms and dads
      keep us our of war because evil bigets evil, anger creates more anger, so we see never ending wars (look at the history of the middle east since 2000bc, never been a real nice place to be).

      ive never gotten a straight answer from anyone when i ask, "how is a soldier protecting my freedom thousands of miles away when i live in a country that no other country would be able to invade or stand up against?"

      if anyone can answer that with an intelligent thought out and informed answer i would love to hear it.

      america is free, and im all for removing evil dictators (which we did in the case of iraq) and making the people free. but right now the iraqi people arent as free as they would have hoped because we became the occupiers of THEY'RE country. imagine if china invaded america to remove bush from power, then while they are at it they decide to bomb our cities, kill the men and women that stood up against them, and then tell us how our lives are going to be lived. knowing the american spirit we wouldnt put up with it, and on top of it everyone i know has access to a gun(s). obviously a hypothetical question, if any country wanted to invade america there would be a gun waiting behind every blade of grass... funny thing about this war is they are shooting at us with our own weapons...and why are we still selling weapons to other countries that would oppose us? because america and russia are the top 2 arms dealers on the planet
      and right now the frame of mind of the uber world powers is set on money...in the end every dead soldier becomes a statistic, every veteran doesnt receive the help that was promised, and every person is expendable and is lied to one way or another. and the ones that decide to go to war never leave an office or see any kind of combat whatsoever... what bothers you more??

      call leaving iraq being defeated or whatever, but i say fighting no war makes us really free...

      the only good thing war ever did to us was realize our own humanity, and why we cant learn from it i will never know...

      at this point im rambling so im done...

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 2:25:19 PM

      Really? I didn't see this sort of thing during Panama or Desert Storm. I also don't see it concerning Afghanistan. Just Iraq.

      Fact: We have wasted 4000 soldiers killed and 30,000+ maimed to enrich Bush's buddies via no-bid contracts. If a young soldier doesn't figure that out on enlistment (at 18-22, you're immortal...bad things only happen to other people), he'll sure as hell figure it out when he winds up in a wheelchair for life.

      The Iraq war is a disgrace and a waste. Time to wrap it up.

      • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/12/2008 2:52:48 PM

        YEAH , IRAQ WAS A WASTE,PUT SADDAM BACK IN POWER AND GET OUT NOW!!!

        • Posted By: nimodahooligan @ 11/12/2008 4:12:10 PM

          know why we should get out of iraq? the government wants us out, saddam is dead and his administration is gone or dead, we are fighting a faceless enemy, we are fighting someone elses war that has been going on for literally thousands of years, our troops would have a better impact if we placed them in or around pakistan and afghanistan.

          your so damn gunghoe go enlist fat boy. you seem to have alot of rage pent up against anyone, including our service men and women. you hate muslims, you hate people of color, you obviously hate yourself calling yourself fat.

          yes the young man mentioned VOLUNTEERED...his choice, it doesnt mean he wanted to be paralyzed from the chest down. it doesnt mean he WANTED to get shot, no one WANTS to get shot or lose a leg or an arm or they're life.

          go enlist and come back here in 4 yrs after a few tours and tell me that you like war, much less a war where you dont know who your enemy is or when the next road side bomb will go off on you. your pathetic, your unamerican, unpatriotic, and coincidentally uneducated in wordly matters. go stuff your face and wallow in your own pity and stop displacing it upon the world.

          • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 4:23:17 PM

            Fat Joey is nothing but mouth.

        • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 3:11:42 PM

          Naw, he's dead. Just get out. Let the Iraqis sort out their country.

  • Posted By: hungrytown @ 11/15/2008 11:10:25 AM

    If President-Elect lifts the ban on showing America the wars' atrocities, it may convince those Americans,
    who want to keep our Troops in Iraq 'til victory is declared - whenever that undefined event occurs- to
    join with us on insisting that America needs the Troops - and the dollars being spent in the Middle East-
    at Home.

  • Posted By: hungrytown @ 11/15/2008 11:02:42 AM

    If President-Elect Barack Obama lifts the ban on allowing ALL Americans to see the atrocities of these
    wars,He may help those Americans who - before Bringing our Troops Home - want to wait for a victory -
    which no one has yet described - Why should the Military - and their Families - be the only Americans
    feeling the effects of these wars?

  • Posted By: Charlie Self @ 11/10/2008 6:53:44 PM

    Ten percent told the pollsters it was the most important thing. A great many more of us "brought the war into the booths" with us. Donahue has to remember that the economy trumps all for everyone not in his financial class; personal survival, financially and otherwise, trumps everything. That's being human, as is standing on Mt. Olympus and making pronouncements that should only come from the gods.

    • Posted By: Hillbilly-American @ 11/12/2008 5:48:03 PM

      SO when is an equally impactful and compelling movie being made about the slaughter of unborn babies? If you are going to be so passionate about people whose lives are disrupted by injury, why so callous about lives that are ended? The soldiers and everybody else know that war can have devastating consequesnces. We do the best we can to equip and prepare for war. We allow babies to be killed daily by refusing to protect them and endorsing behavior that allows their killing. People have choices whether to screw around or not; the babies should not be killed for somebody else's selfish choice.

  • Posted By: comradeyap @ 11/10/2008 8:22:59 PM

    The avearge man in the street is a decent man and would naturally be react with disgust at the senseless killing of 1 million Iraqis in an unjustifiable American war of agression. I watch Phil Donoghue and I find him very entertaining. I have no doubt that Mr Donoghue is a decent man and would be revolted by the utter helplessness of a war vetran, but what about the rest of America ?
    In this 21st century only the USA is the sole superpower and the only nation that thinki nothing of committing naked agression; an agressor that is senseless to the suffering of millions of people in 3rd world nations that have no means of defence against the might of the USA.
    The USA must feel the pains of defenceless victims of USA agression but must also realise that in any war only the millions of civilians who will bear the sufferings of invasion. The USA needs to realise that unaccountable aggression equates with evil and no matter how you spin the truth, millions people die as a consequence of your action. DID YOU INVADE IRAQ JUST TO REMOVE SADDAM OR WAS THERE NOT ANOTHER LESS LAUDABLE INTENTIONS, LIKE STEALING IRAQI OIL ?

    • Posted By: gabber @ 11/10/2008 9:44:46 PM

      For the record, how much oil has the US brought back from Iraq? Not one solitary drop. We have gone into debt in the process, along with the suffering of our brave and dedicated (for the most part, the subject of this article notwithstanding) but Iraq is free of a tyrannical dictator who would rather shove his detractors feet first into a plastic shredder than allow open debate and elections.

      • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/11/2008 8:48:50 AM

        So what? We aren't supposed to be the world's cop.

        • Posted By: gabber @ 11/11/2008 5:42:42 PM

          So do you just come in here after the discussion and add your two cents to everyone? Get a life.

          • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 8:37:05 AM

            Take a hike, Gabber. I have the same right to speak as you do.

            Thanks.

            • Posted By: gabber @ 11/12/2008 9:22:29 AM

              Again, get a life.

              • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 2:12:57 PM

                This coming from the spammer herself. HAR HAR!

                • Posted By: gabber @ 11/12/2008 6:06:34 PM

                  Guess again brainless

                  • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 11:22:51 AM

                    Guess at what? You're a spammer.

                    But I understand if you're a little bitter, as your side just got their asses handed to them. Being completely irrelevant and on the wrong side of history must sting a bit, eh?

      • Posted By: Northwestwoods @ 11/11/2008 7:35:56 PM

        'For the record, how much oil has the US brought back from Iraq? Not one solitary drop.'

        ***-loads of cash, though. Isn't that what the oil is for? To trade for cash?

        • Posted By: gabber @ 11/11/2008 7:50:10 PM

          What are you talking about? We're leaving cash over there and rebuilding their nation for them.

  • Posted By: markusgreutmann @ 11/14/2008 12:41:06 AM

    Phil said, "The whole time standing there next to his bed, seeing his cheekbones and how thin and weak and sallow and loopy on morphine he was, I'd be thinking, "Why him and not me?"" This should be changed to WHY HIM AND NOT GEORGE W. BUSH?!!!" I really hope that there is a hell for GWB (Great White Bastard) to rot in for eternity.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/13/2008 6:42:03 AM

    how does Marlo put up with that PUTZ?

  • Posted By: buzzboyd @ 11/10/2008 10:36:07 PM

    I just saw a documentary on Viet Nam and it pains me to see so many veterans of that war feeling as if their buddies died for nothing because we pulled out. (only after 10 years mind you) So now I see the arguments from those who say, now that we're in, we should justify the deaths of those who have gone before and stay in until we've won. I respect and honor the military. I have many friends who have done more than one tour in these wars. Some of these friends think we should stay. I for one, cannot justify the reasons we went in to Iraq. At worst they were lies and at best total blunders aided by incompetence and ignorance at the highest levels. And after our troops return home and need their country to support them, we grant them more ignorance and incompetence at the VA. This coupled with our diminished standing in the world I have to say this. What about any of this was right? Why would we keep feeding good people into this machine of death and disfigurement. Those who have served should have the honor they so richly deserve. The Bush administration misused these good people in ways much more grievous than any war protester. Spending more lives for those who have already gone does not justify an endless conflict. It's a lesson that just never seems to stick with time.

    • Posted By: Kevlaurbama @ 11/11/2008 8:17:52 AM

      Our standing in the world? Are you kidding me? It's about keeping our country safe. Have we been attacked again? No...but right after the election we hear that OBL is planning an attack bigger than 9/11.

      • Posted By: buzzboyd @ 11/11/2008 1:30:53 PM

        911 and Iraq had nothing to do with each other... hence "incompetence and ignorance at the highest levels".

        • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/11/2008 3:52:14 PM

          WHO EVER SAID WE INVADED IRAQ BECAUSE OF 911? SHOW ME WHERE 911 WAS USED AS THE REASON SH1T4BRAINS?

          • Posted By: Mikeroscope @ 11/11/2008 9:38:44 PM

            9/11 was used multiple times as reasoning for going into Iraq. That is irrefutable. In fact the Bush administration even exaggerated links between al queda and Husein to get support for the war. That is not a political opinion but history.

            • Posted By: Iconoblaster @ 11/12/2008 5:23:20 PM

              Mike is absolutely right. The Bush-Cheney regime exploited 9/11 so shamelessly, and to such effect, that its not very surprising that some people believe they had something to do with it (I'm not saying they did, so spare me the tinfoil hat comments). Bush & Co used 9/11 to amplify fear of terrorism beyond reason, to silence opposition voices and to push his various policy initiatives (wiretapping, torture, ignoring treaties, making up the rules as he went along, invading Iraq, threatening Iran, playing kissy face with Musharraf and scoffing at the International Court and UN), Absent 9/11 there is about a nil probability that Bush would have been able to persuade anyone...even our invertebrate Congress...to authorize an attack on Iraq, and practically every speech, every official paper advocating action against Iraq included references to 9/11 and "post-9/11 realities" to justify attack.

          • Posted By: Northwestwoods @ 11/11/2008 7:34:05 PM

            You must have missed that memo. Cheney has linked Iraq and Hussein to 9/11 as recently as last year in public statements. Do you have a reading comprehension problem or do you simply come from Wasilla, AK?

          • Posted By: buzzboyd @ 11/11/2008 5:31:53 PM

            Don't get self descriptive on me. WMD's, Terrorists, Axis of Evil. Were you paying attention?

      • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/11/2008 8:47:28 AM

        What did Iraq have to do with America being attacked?

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/11/2008 8:46:51 AM

      "I just saw a documentary on Viet Nam and it pains me to see so many veterans of that war feeling as if their buddies died for nothing because we pulled out. "

      I've heard people suggest throwing good money after bad money, in the stock market.

      What you propose is throwing good soldiers after good soldiers.

      No thanks.

      • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/11/2008 8:48:09 AM

        Whoops. Replied to the wrong person..

        • Posted By: Northwestwoods @ 11/11/2008 7:32:09 PM

          Please define 'victory, 'success', or 'winning'. The US can keep sending troops into the meat-grinder for fifty years and it will never happen. The only result will be what you are now witnessing: a widening middle-east war that is already involving a half-dozen different countries.

  • Posted By: bayravin @ 11/11/2008 2:40:52 PM

    I was wondering where Phil was during this election cycle. His voice would have greatly enhanced the arguments instead of the shouting at MSNBC and the 'fair and balanced' fox friends.

    • Posted By: Iconoblaster @ 11/12/2008 5:10:55 PM

      The critics would have jumped on that to suggest the very opposite of the dignity...gravitas...Senator Obama needed to stress, in order to prevail. The headline: "Obama, the Candidate of Donahue and Oprah". And anyone really looking for discussion and throrough analysis wouldn't be tuning in to Faux News anyway.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/12/2008 1:00:24 PM

    OBAMA......JIMMY CATER WITH BLACK FACE....WIMP...

    • Posted By: nimodahooligan @ 11/12/2008 4:13:53 PM

      FATJOEY....JUST A DONUT WITH A BRAIN...

      • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 5:07:19 PM

        Fat Joey also thinks that wounded vets should not have freedom of speech.

        Sad.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/12/2008 11:33:58 AM

    I HAVE CONTEMPT FOR A SOLDIER WHO VOLUNTEERS,BRAGS ABOUT ALL THE KILLING HE';S GOING TO DO,WHAT A KILLING MACHINE HE IS,LIKE THEY ALL DO,THEN WHEN HE GETS THE SHORT END ALL OF A SUDDEN WAR IS BAD?!?!?!

    • Posted By: Iconoblaster @ 11/12/2008 5:05:19 PM

      Contempt might be the right reaction for someone who "brags about all the killing they are going to do". You, however, RESERVE your contempt for the person who, once wounded severely himself, LEARNS BETTER and abandons his erstwhile shallow, callous and murderous attitude. Seems like you have it backwards, Joey.

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 2:11:42 PM

      So you hate wounded soldiers. Gotcha.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/12/2008 11:31:56 AM

    how are dems expoliting him? they ' went for the next ron kovacs,someone we can REALLY PITY!! PARADE HIM AROUND!!! SHOW'M OFF!!!SEE? NO ARMS! NO LEGS? NO BALLS!! WAR IS BAD UNLESS A DEMO CRAT STARTS IT!!

    • Posted By: nimodahooligan @ 11/12/2008 4:15:27 PM

      PRETTY SURE WAR IS HELL ANYWAY YOU PUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! jesus god almighty your an idiot...

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 2:11:20 PM

      So the soldier in question should not be allowed to state his case?

  • Posted By: Patriot-X @ 11/12/2008 1:20:12 PM

    This just in! Breaking news! War is hell!

    Yeah. SO don't go there if you don't mean it, don't go to win decisively and haven't exhausted ALL other honorable options. (Capitulation to aggression, or threats of aggression, is not honorable, FYI.)

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 2:10:38 PM

      And just what were we poised to "capitulate" with regard to Iraq?

  • Posted By: Patriot-X @ 11/12/2008 1:18:24 PM

    This just in! War is hell!

    Yeah. So don't go there if you don't mean it, don't go to win and have exhausted all other honroable options. (Capitulation to aggression or threats of aggression is not honorable.)

  • Posted By: samson19 @ 11/11/2008 6:01:14 PM

    Did one poitician stand up and say I oppose the war because:
    1. over 4,000 Americans have given their lives
    2. over 30,000 wounded
    3. over 50,000 Iraqi civilians dead
    These are moms, dads, brothers & sisters. These are entire families whose generation will not exist in the future. The sacrifices are beyond what any rational human being could fathom. I pitty those who do not look at this young man and say...for what?

    • Posted By: summer4077 @ 11/12/2008 12:27:15 PM

      Yes, there was one...our future president. He never supported the war.

    • Posted By: buzzboyd @ 11/11/2008 9:31:15 PM

      But I do admire Thomas Young's courage. "For what" belongs to those of us who could not see what was happening.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/12/2008 6:29:17 AM

    he doesn't get shot he's drinking beers and BRAGGING ABOUT HIS KILLS!!! he's a pathetic human being! What should be shocking is how he made it through boot camp? he obviously was gomer pyle? wasn't in country 11 min's and gets shot? IN THE BACK!?

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 8:34:52 AM

      I love when republicans mock wounded veterans.

      It trashes the whole myth that they support the troops. Stop hating America, Joey.

      • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/12/2008 9:55:28 AM

        better then EXPLOTING THEM like democraps do?

        • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 10:08:19 AM

          How are the dems exploiting them? And why do you care? You obviously hold a great deal of contempt for soldiers.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/11/2008 3:49:59 PM

    LOOKS LIKE HIS BALLS GOT SHOT OFF TOO?

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 9:13:54 AM

      When do you enlist, Joey?

    • Posted By: buzzboyd @ 11/11/2008 9:25:10 PM

      Careful Joey, Your IQ is showing.

    • Posted By: Northwestwoods @ 11/11/2008 7:27:26 PM

      Joey-thing:
      You attitude is an excellent example of what is wrong with America today.
      Were you just born stupid or did you suffer lasting negative effects from blunt trauma when your drunken father beat you with a pipe after mistaking you for his sister?

  • Posted By: Mikeroscope @ 11/11/2008 9:33:03 PM

    I saw this movie at fullframe. It was powerful and well done. Even the most hardened conservative would have a hard time arguing against this one.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 11/11/2008 3:49:04 PM

    BEFFORE GETTING SHOT THOMAS WAS A REAL KILLER LOOKING FOR COMBAT!!!!!! NOW HE'S JUST A SELF PITYING ***!

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/11/2008 6:56:40 PM

      Way to support the troops, Joey.

      Oh, yeah, I forgot. You republicans only like the troops when they parrot the GOP line.

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