The Hurt Locker

So I saw The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, currently frontrunner for Best Director Oscar (her chief competition being her ex-husband, James Cameron, for Avatar). It's about a bomb disposal unit in the Iraq war. That's it. There isn't much plot. These guys defuse bombs. Mostly IEDs lying on the street. They use robots when they can, but sometimes they have to walk right up to the bomb and disarm them. They have special equipment, like an armored suit, but it's still one of the most dangerous jobs in the armed forces, not to mention the world.


It takes place in 2004. That's about all you know about the world outside of this small group of guys. No mention of weapons of mass destruction, George Bush, or even Saddam Hussein. You're up close and personal with them, like they are with each other. They don't know each other before being assigned to watch each other's backs. They have different ways of seeing the world, different levels of appetite for risk. They don't always agree, which means that they occasionally have to challenge each other. They make mistakes, which, in this environment, can be deadly. For each other as well as themselves.


The movie takes no position on the war, just shows it like it is. But that becomes the best possible antiwar message, because you immediately understand how insane this reality is. This is what should be a normal country, with normal people trying to live normal lives. Even under Saddam Hussein, they managed to get on with their lives. Getting up in the morning, eating, drinking, doing their jobs, falling in love, arguing with friends and families. Playing soccer. Enjoying the sunshine. Then we started a war in the middle of it. And we're still fighting that war. They would like to be able to walk across the street, but there might be an IED there. And we're sending young men, almost none of whom speak the language, to fight this war. While these people have no choice but to try to get on with their lives.


The main character is a guy who is really, really good at defusing bombs, William James (Jeremy Renner, who deserves his Oscar nomination for Best Actor). But he's also something of a cowboy who takes some bizarre risks. Which means that he gets things done, but his risks don't always work out.

A war is a perfect frame for mixing the real and the surreal, because we, the audience, don't really know what normal is. What is over the top? I have no idea, because I don't know where the top is. A guy snipping the wires to defuse a bomb at the last second is an action movie cliche. Except that here the guy snippping the wires isn't a British spy wearing a tux, trying to save the world and the woman in a beautiful dress that he's been sleeping with. The guy snipping the wires is an American soldier in camo who is trying to save the lives of a few Iraqis and Americans. There are no beautiful women. This is not a fantasy. There is no escapism.

Bill James knows he's good at his job, but he doesn't know why he does it. He's very grounded in reality, completely aware of what he has to do. But he's also strangely detached from his own survival instincts. He's pragmatic, focused, competent, and professional.

And just a little bit insane.

My vote for Best Director goes to Kathryn Bigelow.

Best. Colbert. Report. Ever.

Stephen Colbert spent the week in Iraq. He interviewed General Ray Odierno, the four-star general, who told him that he needed a haircut. But Stephen didn't want to take orders from some four-star general.

So the CINC stepped in. That would be the Commander in Chief. The President. You gotta love a President who can score these kinds of style points.

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Obama in Iraq

President Obama went to Iraq on Tuesday, at the end of his trip overseas. Good for him! Love the picture of him in the Times article. Looks like the troops support him! Earlier, in Istanbul, he answered a question about why he is taking longer than he promised during the campaign to get out of Iraq.

“I have a responsibility to make sure that as we bring troops out, that we do so in a careful enough way that we don’t see a complete collapse into violence,” Mr. Obama said. “So some people might say, wait, I thought you were opposed to the war, why don’t you just get them all out right away? Well, just because I was opposed at the outset, it doesn’t’ mean that I don’t have now responsibilities to make sure that we do things in a responsible fashion.”

Obama said during the campaign that he would try to get troops out at a rate of one brigade a month, which he estimated would take 16 months. But he also made it clear that he might change his mind, and articulated this principle: we will be more careful getting out than we were going in.

One thing that many people do not appreciate about Obama is that he is doing many things that will reinforce each other, but which are now separate and disparate. He gave a great speech in Turkey that was very well received. He has made noises about working closely with the Russians and the Iranians. All of those things are interconnected. Turkey is a majority-Muslim country, but it's also part of Europe. Turkey is in a great position to help out with the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which it has done in the past. Iran borders both Iraq and Afghanistan - working with Iran at all will hopefully have a positive impact on both wars.

Right now, the best that Obama can do is start laying groundwork for all these initiatives. None of them will bear fruit immediately. But as good things start to happen in small doses, they will accumulate. Obama is taking many small steps. But there are many, many more steps to take.

Photos of the Fallen

The Pentagon has reversed its policy of prohibiting the taking of photographs of coffins returning to Dover Air Force Base from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not surprising; the debate over the propriety of allowing photographs to be taken was reopened when Obama took office. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he was "never comfortable" with the ban. The decision whether or not to allow photographs of individual coffins will be made in consultation with the families, who will have veto power. That's entirely appropriate.

I'm in favor of this change in policy. If I were in one of those coffins, I would want my sacrifice recorded for posterity.

A Marine Mom for Obama

This is a great post from a woman whose son served in Iraq, and who was so frustrated that she started campaigning hard - and I mean hard - for Obama. I'm posting this in honor of Veteran's Day.

Married couples in the Army in Iraq

From USA Today, some good news, such as it is: Married couples in the US Army are now allowed to live together while deployed together. That's good. But it adds some twists to married life:

"Because we're so close out here, we know to the hour when our loved one's supposed to be home from a mission," Jessica said. "So if they're late, our brains starts going to that place where you start to wonder what went wrong. That happens more often than I'd like to admit."
I guess that does change the meaning of "So, honey, how was your day?" Still, it's nice to be able to give props to the Army.

Angelina Jolie in the WaPo

Angelina Jolie wrote an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post. Very cool! I knew there was a reason I liked her. It's an interesting piece, because she calls for more humanitarian aid, specifically so Iraqis can come home. She's undecided about the surge, noting that the soldiers she talked to "miss home but feel invested in Iraq." I think she's expressing the ambivalence that a lot of us feel - we desperately want to get out, but we don't want to abandon the Iraqi people. In this respect, her focus on supporting the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is appropriate. It would be great to see the US working closely with the UN.