The United States Conflict in Iraq that Showed in The Film Stop Loss - Movie Review Example

The United s Conflict in Iraq During the fifth anniversary of the national tragedy that the 9/11 terrorist incident represented, President Bush’s speech appeared to highlight the long drawn out and continuing nature of the Iraqi conflict. According to Shapiro, “what stunned me was that instead, with just a few chilling sentences, Bush painted a portrait of war without end, amen.”(Shapiro, 2006). The film “Stop Loss” which was released in March 2008 is also notable precisely because it expresses the interminable nature of the conflict of the United States with Iraq, and the sense of helplessness and confusion that are associated with it. The continuation of the war in Iraq with no end in sight is producing a negative impact, not only upon individual soldiers, but also upon the average American citizen whose tax dollars are being diverted away to fund causes in another nation, which do not concern him/her. The film “Stop Loss” opens by focusing on the lives of U.S. soldiers and their combat encounters in Iraq. It then follows them home to Texas, where one of the protagonists Brandon discovers that he is the victim of a stop loss order that requires him to return to Iraq (www.en.wikipedia.org). The sense of relief and joy on his return home changes into a sense of helplessness and a feeling of being trapped, because he now has to return to the scene of suffering and strife. He soon discovers there is no way out from the stop loss order; others who had earlier contested these orders had failed to succeed. This aspect of the film represents the continual nature of the conflict in Iraq. It depicts the way soldiers are forced to keep returning to Iraq, to continue to languish in the needless violence and combat. The inability of the United States to bring about a decisive end to a war which was initially presented as an easy victory is underscored through the plight of individual soldiers as depicted in the film “Stop Loss”. These soldiers are forced to return again and again to combat regions, while the administration continues to pump billions of dollars into the war, without being able to bring about an effective end to the conflict. As pointed out by Shapiro (2006), the status quo has been preserved in the Iraq war and there is little that the President or his administration can offer in defense to justify the loss of life and the huge financial costs being borne by tax payers to support the United States action in Iraq. In 2007, the budget for its military units controlled by the Pentagon was $450 billion and the “War on Terror” added an additional $200 billion dollars of the budget, which translates into the military eating up one-sixth of the nation’s yearly governmental spending (Hargreaves, 2006). But despite these large amounts that are being paid out, an effective resolution to the conflict does not appear to be in sight. The film “Stop Loss” only hammers home the message that the status quo in Iraq appears unending and unceasing, it literally appears to be a war from which there is no end in so far as the individual soldier is concerned. It is a never ending war, seeming to go on and on. The United States has embroiled itself in a war situation where it cannot easily withdraw without unleashing forces of anarchy and chaos in the Iraq region. While embarking on the war in Iraq, the justification offered by President George W. Bush was: “we’re determined to prevent terrorist attacks before they occur. So we’re taking the fight to the enemy. The best way to protect America is to stay on the offensive.” (Shapiro, 2006). But the war has failed to achieve its targets. The goal of the war was itself not clearly drawn out in terms of practical goals and objectives. While it has successfully overthrown Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, the result has only been chaos. This is largely due to the ethnic conflicts that still disturb the region and make it risky for American soldiers to withdraw without unleashing lethal clashes between rival ethnic groups. As a result, the presence of American soldiers in Iraq remains pivotal and they remain embroiled in combat and in preserving law and order. The never ending nature of the war is further exemplified in Mr. Bush’s attempt to justify America’s continued involvement as follows: “The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict….It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation. Our nation is being tested in a way that we have not since the start of the Cold War."(Shapiro, 2006). This further appears to signify that the war is apt to continue on with no clearly defined exit period. The threat of the Al Qaeda, scattered terrorist cells and Iraqi extremists are being posed as a threat equal to the threat of communism and the Cuban missile crisis (Shapiro 2006) and used to justify a war that goes on and on with no end in sight. In assessing the impact of the film “Stop Loss”, Scott(2008) offers the view that it is “literally and metaphorically, a journey to nowhere.” After the relief Brandon experiences, to be finally coming home and away from the war in Iraq, he is faced with a stop loss order that requires him to return to the combat area, where he and his team are subject to dangers at every turn. As Brandon hits the road and takes off, seeking to run away from the stop loss order and find a way to protest against it, the movie figuratively and graphically depicts the sense of hopelessness and frustration associated with this long journey to nowhere. (Scott, 2008). There is however no escape for Brandon from the stop loss order and he ultimately makes the choice to return to Iraq. But during the process, the film depicts the horrors of war as experienced by individual soldiers. One member of Brandon’s team dies; another is the victim of shrapnel fire and sustains severe burn wounds. Yet another member of their team is the victim of stress syndrome, a man broken by the horrors of war - who seeks to escape his inner mental tortures by drowning himself in drink. The mindless incidents of violence which break out among the men even after they have returned to Texas, the constant state of tense readiness they remain in as a result of their war experiences, the inability to connect effectively with their loved ones as shown in the film, all demonstrate the toll of the war on individual soldiers. Brandon himself has been deeply and negatively affected by his Iraq experience, especially as the leader of the team, because he has had to witness the various tragedies that have blighted the lives of his team mates, apart from losing one member of the team as well. Furthermore, he is also told about another army man who was served with a stop loss order and returned to the battle ground, only to die in combat (en.wikipedia.org) and is thus forced to live with the threat of death every day, just like the rest of his team members and other soldiers fighting in Iraq. Brandon’s road journey is thus like a desperate attempt to break away to freedom, to run away and hide himself somewhere where he will not be found, so that he does not have to return to Iraq, to face the scene of war again. He is offered the opportunity to escape to another country – Canada – but this will mean that he can never return home again. Towards the end of the film, as Brandon is almost ready to go across the border, he changes his mind and decides not to go ahead with it because he feels that he will become merely the ghost of who he was and will never be able to see his family and friends again. As a result, he has to return to Iraq and the never ending war. The film demonstrates the devastating impact of the war on the ordinary soldiers who are being sent to Iraq again and again. The United States conflict in Iraq has thus extracted a heavy toll on ordinary soldiers serving on the battlefield. While the number of casualties in the Iraq war may not be as high as those in the IInd World War, it is still extracting a fearsome toll in the strongly negative emotional and mental impact on the soldiers. The film “Stop loss” ends with Brandon leaving for Iraq. It shows that there are no good outcomes for Brandon – he can either choose to live the rest of his life as a fugitive or return to combat; he chooses the latter. But as Scott (2008) puts it, the “dispiriting open endedness of the story, confirmed in its wrenching, hectic final scenes, mirrors the larger reality of the war itself, whose end grows harder to imagine with every passing day.” (Scott, 2008). The lack of a firmly defined close-out strategy, a war for which there is no clear resolution in sight, has had an equally devastating effect on Americans at home. Since the war was initiated in 2003 to 2008, the Iraq war machine has been fuelled with billions of dollars of tax payer money, which is being directed into military affairs instead of meeting the social, educational and infrastructure projects that American citizens need. This diversion of funds away from the basic needs of Americans has produced increasing levels of poverty within the nation. If the policy of the United States on Iraq is not changed and the current large amounts of money continue to be pumped into funding the Iraq war, then over the next 10 years, the average American household will pay more for the war than the real domestic gross per capita of the nation of $38,000 per year (CountryWatch, 2007). Individual soldiers in Iraq are suffering due to the never ending war, but average Americans are also suffering the fallout of the war effort. Through the diversion of their tax dollars into playing the rule of super cop in the middle east, they are being deprived of the basic amenities and infrastructure that they need and that they pay taxes to achieve. The film “Stop loss” amply demonstrates the sense of hopelessness, open endedness and uncertainty associated with the Iraq war. It is high time that America questioned the United States conflict in Iraq and directed its efforts towards bringing an end to the long drawn out war which seems to have no end in sight…………1768 words. References: * CountryWatch (2008). Country Profile: United States. Available from [8 April 2008]. * Hargreaves, H. (2007). War on Terror may cost $2.4 trillion. CNN Money. Available on URL: [Accessed 9 April 2008]. * Scott, A.O., 2008. “Back from Iraq, on a road going nowhere”, The New York Times, May 15, 2008; Available on URL: http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/movies/28stop.html?n=Top/News/World/ Countries%20and%20Territories/Iraq; [accessed May 15, 2008]. * Shapiro, Walter, 2006. “The never ending war”, Available online at: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/09/12/bush_speech/; [Accessed May 15, 2008] * “Stop Loss (film)”, Available online at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop-Loss_(film); [accessed May 15, 2008] Read More