Just heard about this not-yet-released film, RESTREPO tonight. It looks to be quite powerful.
At present I do not have any background information as to the storyline but encourage you to visit the site and take a look, and form your own opinion ( Hat tip to Kanani). Feel free to sound off on the comments section.
RESTREPO: One Platoon. One Year. One Valley
Matt Armstrong has a must-read, incisive, take on the manipulatively edited propaganda popularly known as the “Wikileaks video”:
The true fiasco exposed by Wikileaks
….The Wikileaks release apparently caught the Defense Department flatfooted. Even today, three days after its release, there is largely silence from DOD, save a brief public comment and a link to documents and photos at http://www.centcom.mil/ (hidden in plain sight through the link labeled “Link to FOIA documents on July 2007 New Baghdad Combat Action“). Don’t bother going to http://www.defense.mil/ as that site, and hence the Pentagon, has
nothing readily available either. The April 6 briefing pack did not include the explanatory imagery and there is no news release explanation the Department’s position. It’s as if nothing happened. When asked about the situation, senior official at DOD pointed me to the “great piece” in The New York Times explaining how trained soldiers view and operate in these events differently than civilians. This, however, misses the point.
Despite the vigorous discussion online and over the air whether there was a violation of the laws of war, the old belief that if you ignore a problem it will go away continues to dominate.
Read the rest here.
Gaming as a cultural paradigm ( Hat tip to Jessica Margolin):
ADDENDUM:
“You are formally charged with War Game Crimes and with Playing Games against Humanity…”
ADDENDUM II:
John has the full presentation, not just the above excerpted clip.
A big hat tip to John Robb for finding and posting this gem. I guess Nazism, the French and Russian Revolutions, the Spartacus Revolt and several world religions could all have been ignited by an inspired moment of interpretive dance:
The second vid has a much better trailer clip if you can sit through an annoying, infotainment show, introduction.
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