This past week, Bill Moyers devoted the entire hour of the Journal to showing an edited-for-time version of the new documentary The Good Soldier, which is opening in limited theatrical release today.  The official website of the film can be found here, and you can also link to more information at the PBS website.

As Moyers says in his introduction, "The Good Soldier features violent images. Viewer Discretion is advised. A discretion that soldiers cannot afford. This film is not sanitized."

We were on the outskirts of the Baghdad stadium, and there was an incident with a red Kia.  They didn't stop at the checkpoint, so we lit them up.  I'm pulling the trigger as fast as I can, three victims were expiring rapidly.  There was one man sobbing, "Why did you kill my brother? We're not terrorists!"  I just wanted to close my ears each time he said it.  It was being permanently burned into my brain.  I lost it.  The night before that - that was the last night I got a good night's sleep.  

~Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey

Directed by Lexy Lovell and Michael Uys, The Good Soldier presents five combat veterans telling their stories in their own words:  Jimmy Massey (Iraq), Michael McPhearson (Gulf War), Will Williams (Vietnam), Perry Parks (Vietnam), and Edward Wood (WWII).  (Note:  In the version that was shown on PBS, the segment on Michael McPhearson was edited out to keep the film under an hour.)  Each of these men served his country with honor and distinction, and each of them bears the scars that are inflicted only on those who experience combat.

It is painful to watch a man relive events that took place 6 years ago, or 40 years ago, or even 65 years ago as if they are still happening.  Painful and humbling to see such naked vulnerability.

These men were all "good soldiers".  Some of them may have joined the military because they had no other opportunities,  but they were trained to wage war and they were sent abroad to do what their country asked of them. Not surprisingly, problems like depression, drug and alcohol abuse, the inability to readjust to normal life, broken marriages, insomnia, feelings of isolation, difficulty communicating with others about their experiences -- all of the things that characterize Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder -- have been experienced to varying degrees and in varying combinations by all of them.

I think of it every day.  Vietnam is something constant with me - it keeps me from sleeping at night.  I don't go to bed 'til well after midnight.  I still have flashbacks.  I'm still in counseling for it.  But what I did do was manage to find some good.  I know now we are all one throughout this earth.

~Staff Sergeant Will Williams 

Some may say that this film has a "liberal bias".  Jimmy Massey was one of the founding members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Will Williams is a member of the Madison (Wisconsin) Area Peace Coalition, and Michael McPhearson is the Executive Director of Veterans For Peace, for example. There are many accounts of so-called "collateral damage", the killing of innocent and unarmed civilians.  And all of these men are disillusioned with war.

But, frankly, I would find it very troubling if any veteran, especially a combat veteran, didn't feel that way about war.  Not about whether his or her particular war was or is just, or whether that war defeated a tyrant or a repugnant ideology, but about what it is that war really entails. Because in order to carry out the objectives of any war, the soldier is called upon, first and foremost, to do one thing:  to kill those people who have been designated as the enemy.  

That is what a good soldier does, and I think that the film treats these men and, by extension, all soldiers who have gone through this, with great compassion.  There aren't any judgments made, even when some of them talk about the "rush" that comes with killing and the need to avenge their fallen comrades.

A young person who is considering a life in the military needs to know that it is not just the job, the education, the travel - the glorious parts they show you.  Your real bare bones job is to go out and kill people.  Every man is an infantryman.  Every soldier's priority is to conduct the war.

~Chief Warrant Officer Perry Parks 

So I will never denigrate or question any of those good soldiers.  They did what their government asked of them, and most of them are paying a very heavy price for that.  

I reserve my questions for the government that demands the power to put men and women in the position of being on one end of a gun and, very often, innocent civilians on the other end, even for a just cause, and then expects them to come back and seamlessly reintegrate into society while carrying these deep and lingering wounds.  A government should only exercise that power when all other alternatives have failed.  If a government is going to train solders to kill, and then send them out to do just that, then that government had better be prepared to care for the soldiers who come home.

To the veterans of all wars from all branches of the military:  America owes you a great deal.  Thank you for your service, and I hope that your country will honor its commitment to you.