Sean Smith's brutal, uncompromising film shows the horrific chaos of Obama's War

[Karmadillo]

The film can be found at the link below. It is not easy to watch. We shouldn't be there.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/afghanistan-sean-smith-frontline-report

The Guardian also published Smith's diary.

Afghanistan: the futility of war
Guardian film-maker and photographer Sean Smith has just spent five weeks in Afghanistan, first with a US helicopter ambulance crew, and then with the US marines. This is his astonishing diary of his time with special forces

2/06/2010

At 8.30am I leave Kandahar US airbase on a flight with the Guardian Angels; these are specially trained US air force helicopter pilots who fly into combat areas to pick up the injured. Accompanying them are the "jumpers", the armed paramedics who will jump out and get the wounded – or the bodies. There's also a gunner who mans the machine guns as the helicopter lands.

They are working 12-hour shifts. Mostly they are watching movies, doing emails. Today there was a class on how to treat burns.

3/06/2010

In the morning we pick up a US soldier who has been shot in the face and chest on patrol. We're hit by two rounds of gunfire shot through the underneath of the helicopter. To take out the helicopter when it comes in to pick up the wounded soldier – that's the real prize.

The injured guy was on the verge of passing out and couldn't move his face or say anything because his cheek had been shot away, and his airways were blocked. He survived. Later on, we pick up another soldier who had lost two legs and an arm. He made it too.

4/06/2010

Pick up an Afghan lorry driver caught by an IED (improvised explosive device).

5/6/2010

Pick up an Afghan soldier who has shot himself in the foot.

6/06/2010

We are called out to a soldier who has stepped on a mine. We land, as there is no one shooting at us. He has lost an arm and a leg but still has a pulse. The medics are doing emergency resuscitation. We are only in the air five minutes and they are pumping and pumping and still going at him on the stretcher as he is taken off the copter. He doesn't make it.

more...

[denbot]

1. Obama inherited this clusterfuck..

Thanks for repeating a Republican meme..

[jgraz]

2. Correction: Obama escalated this clusterfuck

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[denbot]

4. Greens gave us Bush II, way to go!!!

BTW the major donors to green campaigns are the republicans, again, way to go!!!

[Karmadillo]

5. Kick

nt