Ever since Saving Private Ryan (1998), there has been a big push by

Hollywood to demonstrate, in as much gruesome detail as possible, the

horrific nature of World War II. Movies such as Enemy at the Gates

and The Thin Red Line, along with mini-series like Band of

Brothers followed in Ryan’s bloody footsteps.

Long gone are the days of relatively sanitized war flicks like Bridge

on the River Kwai, A Bridge Too Far or The Guns of

Navarone, where soldiers who get shot crumple softly to the ground, and

everyone dies with their eyes closed, limbs intact, and whispering to their

buddies, “Tell Mom I love her!”

Flags of Our Fathers is the latest Ryan-esque offering. In

hideously graphic detail, Clint Eastwood brings us the U.S. invasion of Iwo

Jima during World War II. In and around the story of the famous flag raising

atop Mount Suribachi, we see bullets piercing skulls, arms and legs blown

off, men skewered on bayonets and soldiers trying to tuck their own bowels

back into their bodies.

We are meant to be horrified; reminded of the tremendous sacrifice made

during WWII. Movie goers are supposed to think to themselves, “Wow, I

never knew it was so awful.”

That’s fine. I’m good with it. Nearly 7,000 marines died fighting to

capture Iwo Jima. More than 19,000 men were wounded. We

should know just how terrible it was.

So why, then, are we so complacent about how insulated we are being kept

from an actual war going on right now in Iraq? Why do we sit by and allow

ourselves to be fooled into thinking the same awful violence is not happening

there?

Since March of 2003, 2,837 American soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines

have been killed in Iraq. 20,687 American service men and women have been

wounded, many losing arms and legs.

When was the last time you even saw wounded American soldiers on

TV?

In a recent article, Ron Kovic, the paralyzed Vietnam vet famously played

by Tom Cruise in Born on the 4th of July wrote:

“I, like most other

Americans, have occasionally seen them on TV or at the local veterans

hospital, but for the most part they remain hidden, like the flag-draped

caskets of our dead, returned to Dover Air Force Base in the darkness of

night as this administration continues to pursue a policy of censorship,

tightly controlling the images coming out of that war and rarely ever

allowing the human cost of its policy to be seen.”

If America is ready to pay 10 bucks apiece to see detached heads still in

their helmets strewn on the battlefield from a war a half century ago, why

not face up to the true horrors going on in Iraq? Must we wait 50 years

until some film-maker decides to make a movie about it? I hope not.

Ethan Morris is a freelance writer who loves to tell people what

he thinks about movies, DVDs and TV — even when they don’t want to hear

about it. He also wants to know what you think, so feel free to

href="mailto:goaheadandwrite@gmail.com">write him.