9/11 marked a new era in global terrorism, and a "War on Terror" was launched by the US. Since then, trillions have been spent on conventional warfare, counter-terrorism, secret intelligence, homeland security, cyberdefence and more, in pursuit of a sometimes indefinable enemy. We look at the costs and impact of this effort. Is there less terrorism today than before the war started? Is our world any safer?
Scott Castle served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years. While assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division he served three combat tours in Iraq, including the First and Second Battles of Fallujah.
Julie Mendez served in the Iraq War. Finding herself on convoys engaging insurgents, she came to question the reason why so many Iraqi found the Americans as invaders rather than liberators. She turned to art to recover from her experiences.
Four hard-hitting stores, from the deadliest period in U.S. Army Aviation, since Vietnam. Actual footage from the events, and interviews from the Soldiers, who were there - bring these intense and touching stories of courage and sacrifice to life.
Michael Blackwell entered the United States Navy on Veteran's Day, 2002 and served for more than nine years. While stationed with the now-disestablished Fleet Combat Camera Group Pacific, he served alongside United States Army 5th and 10th group Special Forces in Iraq.
FRONTLINE tells the stories of soldiers who have come home haunted by their experiences during the Iraq War and asks whether the government is doing enough to help.
Pam Roark: Iraq War Nurse is a short documentary about Captain Pam Roark - a Navy nurse whose life-long passion and commitment resulted in an exciting story of female military leadership.
PFC Benjamin Tollefson was killed in action during Operation: Iraqi Freedom. His mother tells the story he never got a chance to share.
Interviews with varied U.S officials and experts offer a deconstruction on the Bush administration's case for war in Iraq in the wake of 9/11.
Documents a 40-year relationship between Saddam Hussein and the U.S., through accounts given by those who were witness to and participants in those years of violence. It is about a man and a superpower who used each other, in a marriage of convenience between strange bed-fellows. Includes selected archival footage of Saddam's beginnings, filmed to immortalise his exploits, at 20 years of age, in 1959. Includes also images from the film, Saddam Hussein, le maître de Baghdad, directed by Michel Vuillermet (Zarafa Films)
Years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a loosely organized insurgency continues to target American and Coalition soldiers, as well as Iraqi security forces and civilians, with devastating results. In this sobering account of the ongoing violence, Ahmed Hashim, a specialist on Middle Eastern strategic issues and on irregular warfare, reveals the insurgents behind the widespread revolt, their motives, and their tactics. The insurgency, he shows, is not a united movement directed by a leadership with a single ideological vision. Instead, it involves former regime loyalists, Iraqis resentful of foreign occupation, foreign and domestic Islamist extremists, and elements of organized crime. These groups have cooperated with one another in the past and coordinated their attacks; but the alliance between nationalist Iraqi insurgents on the one hand and religious extremists has frayed considerably.
If a picture paints a thousand words, what will photographs from the Second Gulf War show us? This special focuses on the embedded photographers who traveled with fighting units on the cutting edge of the armored spear slicing into Iraq. The war was thereto be captured in all its raw truth by any photographer with the guts to step out and shoot the picture. In collaboration with the Associated Press, we view never-before-seen photos that portray the horror, struggle, and endurance of mankind.
Seeking to understand 'why they hate us', the US military adopts a new strategy of cultural awareness to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi and Afghan people. Controversy erupts when academics embed with combat troops and the war comes home to the university.
Soundtrack to War showcases spontaneous music performances by a striking cast of battle weary. Performances made without rehearsal, under the blaring Iraqi sun, with a destroyed city, the distraction of gunfire and bursting mortar shells forming a frightening backdrop. American culture came into Iraq, wired into its tanks and helicopters - a live soundtrack to war, with lyrics such as Let The Bodies Hit The Floor, Round Out, The Tank and Bombs over Baghdad, being memorised by every soldier and forever linked to the violent events they accompanied. As the war extended into a second year, many started writing and performing their own songs. It was rock, rap & roll.
Comical Ali is a spoof documentary about the thus-nicknamed former Iraqi Minister for Information, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, whose bravura performances at press conferences throughout the brief Iraq War of 2003 turned him into a global icon.
The movie deals with two soldiers home from the Iraq war suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but in vastly different ways. One sees her life falling apart in night-terrors, flashbacks, insomnia, and a total lack of government support. The other still believes he is fighting the war now that he is back on American soil. Still convinced he is supposed to torture and kill any and everyone who can be viewed as Anti-American. Soon they will be at a crossroads and blood will be flooding the American streets.
An exploration of the visual and psychological parallels between the American western frontier and the conflict in the Middle East.
BROTHERS AT WAR is an intimate portrait of an American family during a turbulent time. Jake Rademacher sets out to understand the experience, sacrifice, and motivation of his two brothers serving in Iraq. The film follows Jake’s exploits as he risks everything—including his life—to tell his brothers’ story.
Programming the Nation? takes an encompassing look at the history of subliminal messaging in America. According to many authorities, since the late 1950s subliminal content has been tested and delivered through all forms of mass-media including Hollywood filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and William Friedkin. Even our modern military has been accused of these practices in the "war on terror" against soldiers and civilians both abroad and at home. With eye-opening footage, revealing interviews, humorous anecdotes, and an array of visual effects, the film categorically explores the alleged usage of subliminals in advertising, music, film, television, anti-theft devices, political propaganda, military psychological operations, and advanced weapons development. Director Jeff Warrick makes it his personal mission to determine if these manipulative tactics have succeeded in "programming the nation?" Or, if subliminal messaging belongs in the category of what many consider urban legend.
Casey Conklin joined the 3rd Ranger Battalion as a medic, because he always believed they were the toughest group around. After his experience in the Battle of Mosul in Iraq and receiving his Ranger tab, he doesn't question how tough he is. After returning home, he finds that he still must challenge himself to stay healthy and redefine toughness at home.