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Off to War: The Story of a National Guard Unit's Journey From
Rural Arkansas to Baghdad
The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
Off to War: The Story of a National Guard Unit's
Journey From Rural Arkansas to Baghdad
In April 2004, 57 citizen soldiers from Clarksville, Arkansas
left their jobs and their families to serve in Iraq as members
of the 239th Infantry of the Arkansas National Guard. Embedded
with them is the brother filmmaking team of Brent and Craig
Renaud who tell their story in a new documentary, "Off
to War" featuring on the Discovery Times Channel.
Last week, 19 members of a U.S. Army Reserve platoon were
placed under arrest for refusing to obey orders to go on what
they considered a "suicide mission."
Stationed at Tallil Air Base south of Nasiriyah, members
of the 343rd Quartermaster Company were ordered to drive a
fuel supply convoy up to Taji, north of Baghdad. The soldiers
had previously only focused on local missions in safer parts
of southern Iraq and had never driven through Baghdad more
than 200 miles away, where U.S. forces regularly come under
fire. On average, American soldiers were attacked 87 times
a day in August. Over 1,100 U.S. soldiers have been killed
in Iraq since the war began.
The platoon refused the order considering their trucks to
be extremely unsafe. They said the convoy tankers lacked bullet-resistant
armor and were not able to travel faster than 40 miles an
hour. Some of the supply trucks were in disrepair and prone
to breakdown. And while the armed escort of Humvees and helicopters
normally provided, was not available. One the soldiers later
described the mission as a "death sentence."
After refusing the orders, the U.S. Army placed the men and
women of the platoon under arrest.
The place the soldiers refused to travel to, Taji, is just
north of Baghdad. That is the headquarters of members of the
39th Infantry Brigade of the Arkansas National Guard deployed
in Iraq. On Saturday, the third installment of a documentary
series following those National Guard soldiers will air on
Discovery Times at 10 PM Eastern Time. It's called "Off
to War: From Rural Arkansas to Baghdad."
The soldiers are stationed at Camp Cooke in Taji. It is the
first time since World War II that this many Arkansas National
Guard soldiers have been deployed to a combat zone. Many of
these soldiers have never traveled beyond the borders of Arkansas
and now face an entire year away from home. Back in Arkansas,
their families grow more fearful that these guardsmen, who
work in sales, farming and other non-military jobs, could
become the targets of Iraqi insurgents bent upon attacking
Americans.
The soldiers arrived to Iraq in April of 2004, as the security
situation in the country begins to deteriorate. Camp Cooke
is being mortared on a daily basis, and the Arkansas National
Guard begins suffering casualties the very first day that
they arrive in Iraq. Embedded with them are the filmmaker
brothers Craig and Brent Renaud, our colleagues here at the
firehouse from Downtown Community Television. In a moment,
we will be joined by them in our studio. But first, here is
an excerpt of this Saturday's installment of Off to War.
- Craig Renaud , producer of the documentary series, "Off
to War: From Rural Arkansas to Baghdad" which follows
members of the Arkansas National Guard as they deploy to
Iraq. On Saturday, the third installment of the series will
air on Discovery Times.
- Brent Renaud , producer of the documentary series "Off
to War: From Rural Arkansas to Baghdad", which follows
members of the Arkansas National Guard as they deploy to
Iraq. On Saturday, the third installment of the series will
air on Discovery Times.
The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
The new documentary "The Oil Factor: Behind the War
on Terror" examines the link between oil interests and
current U.S. military interventions. It includes original
footage shot over a four-month period in Iraq, Pakistan and
Afghanistan as well as many interviews with a large array
of personalities including Bush administration officials.
It has been just over 3 years since the Bush administration
began it's large scale bombing of Afghanistan, kicking off
the so-called war on terror. Osama bin Laden remains at large,
tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed in
both Afghanistan and Iraq.
More than 130,000 US troops are on the ground in Iraq and
the body bags continue to come back to US soil. While the
invasion and occupation of Iraq dominates the political discussions
and debates ahead of the November 2 election, both major candidates
have vowed to "win the war in Iraq."
Against the backdrop of the US election campaign, a new documentary
has just been released that examines what many see as the
key US motive for the war. That motive is oil.
The documentary is called "The Oil Factor: Behind the
War on Terror." It examines the link between oil interests
and current U.S. military interventions. It includes original
footage shot over a four-month period in Iraq, Pakistan and
Afghanistan as well as many interviews with a large array
of personalities including Bush administration officials.
The film was produced by Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy
of Free-Will Productions.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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