'Body of War' hits Albuquerque

Run-up to war brought in focus by book, film and TV interview.

Phil Donahue, right, chats outside the Guild theater with moviegoer Susan Clair. (Photo by Denise Tessier)

By Denise Tessier 05/29/2008

ALBUQUERQUE -- For anyone reading excerpts from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book the morning after having Phil Donahue talk and screen his film, "Body of War," two huge pieces of the run-up to the war in Iraq fall in place.

McClellan's confessional, excerpted Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, is a scathing review of the run-up to the war in terms of the Bush administration.

The movie, which aired in Albuquerque Tuesday, is a scathing review of the run-up in terms of the U.S. senators who gave George W. Bush the power to go to war, along with the effect their vote had on the "everyman" soldier profiled in the movie -- a 25-year-old named Tomas Young, who was paralyzed by a gunshot wound after only five days in Iraq.

For a perspective on the holders of the third piece of the triptych -- the press -- all one had to do was watch TV Wednesday morning. Three network anchors made a rare joint appearance on "The Today Show" to promote a cancer research effort. Seizing the opportunity, Matt Lauer questioned them about the press' war coverage, and Katie Couric and Brian Williams acknowledged the press wasn't aggressive enough in questioning the war. All three, including Charles Gibson, referenced administration attempts at press intimidation.

Five years after the invasion, the Iraq war remains much on Americans' minds, as evidenced by the filmgoers who were turned away Tuesday as a line snaked down Central Avenue in Nob Hill for evening showings of "Body of War" at the Guild Cinema. The crowd was partly attributable to the presence of film producer Donahue, another familiar face from television.

In the film, snippets of senators' speeches offered during the historic war vote of October 2002 are laid over 3 1/2 years in the life of Young. Tomas Young enlisted in the U.S. Army two days after 9/11 thinking he'd go to Afghanistan and help the president keep his Ground Zero promise to vanquish "evil-doers."

Young's intellectual journey -- from questioning the administration's attack on Iraq to becoming a spokesman for Iraq Veterans Against the War -- is interspersed with scenes of rare joy. But more often the documentary is an unflinching look at day-to-day and multiple physical agonies, including chronic pain, the inability to cough or control body temperature (he wears a vest with ice packets when it's hot), dizziness and dealing with personal hygiene issues unique to a body shattered by war.

As Republican U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce exchanged debate barbs in their race to replace retiring Sen. Pete Domenici in Albuquerque Tuesday night, in another part of the city boos greeted Wilson and Domenici when they appeared in film clips reciting the administration talking points that rationalized the war. (Three-quarters of their fellow senators, including Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden and John Kerry, quoted similar talking points, the film makes clear.)

Clips were shown, too, of the minority senators (both in number and often in terms of gender and ethnicity) who spoke out against the war. Prominently showcased throughout were the long and historic warnings of Sen. Robert Byrd, pleading with his fellow senators, "Don't rush this through."

Much of Byrd's speech directly quoted James Madison's Helvidius speech of 1793:

"In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. ...

"Beside the objection to such a mixture of heterogeneous powers, the trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man...

"... the executive is the department of power most distinguished by its propensity to war: hence it is the practice of all states, in proportion as they are free, to disarm this propensity of its influence."

The clear desire for war inside the executive branch is a theme in McClellan's book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception":

When Bush was making up his mind to pursue regime change in Iraq, it is clear that his national security team did little to slow him down, to help him fully understand the tinderbox he was opening and the potential risks in doing so.

An even more fundamental problem was the way his advisers decided to pursue a political propaganda campaign to sell the war to the American people. It was all part of the way the White House operated and Washington functioned, and no one seemed to see any problem with using such an approach on an issue as grave as war.

Most objective observers today would say that in 2003 there was no urgent need to address the threat posed by Saddam with a large-scale invasion, and therefore the war was not necessary. But this is a question President Bush seems not to want to grapple with.

Byrd appears to address the same point in "Body of War" when he quotes Nazi Hermann Goering, who in the "Nuremberg Diaries" makes this comment about the inclination of people, even in a democracy:

"... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

In addressing 140 patrons after the sold-out 6:30 p.m. showing of "Body of War," Donahue said the Constitution clearly gives Congress responsibility for voting yes or no on whether to go to war. But since the 1940s, "Congress hasn't wanted this job." By pushing the responsibility to the president, legislators can say, "Don't blame me," Donahue said.

The press also shares some responsibility, Donahue said. During the run-up, "Every major metropolitan newspaper in this country supported this war. This is the level of hysteria this president was able to generate three weeks before an election."

In such a climate, "Imagine the courage it took to say no."

The film listed the senators who voted against giving the president the power to invade Iraq. It also shows the elder statesman, Byrd, sharing his own framed copy of the list with Young in his Senate office. Byrd calls those on the list "The Immortal 23."

Of the 17,000 votes cast during his 48 years in the Senate, Byrd says his "no" on Iraq "was the most important vote I ever cast." Shouts of approval and applause erupted in the theater as Sen. Jeff Bingaman's "no" vote was read on the movie screen. At the end of the film, the 133 House members who voted no, including Rep. Tom Udall, the Democrat running for Domenici's seat, were listed, and he also received a "shout out" from the audience when the film panel with his name appeared.

Donahue said he made this film intending to show the pain it has caused. "We've become a warrior nation and it's killing our children," he said. Yet, "We don't see the pain in this war. I got a tax cut. It's been so successfully sanitized."

Donahue also gave a sobering update on Young's current status: After entering a Veterans Affairs hospital last week with his right arm totally numb, Young suffered a blood-clot-induced coma from which he just awakened on Monday. The extent of the damage, Donahue said, is as yet unknown. The story of last week's hospital admission, where Donahue said Young was treated only with "a pill," echoed the movie's tales of the less-than-superior care and rehabilitation Young received at Walter Reed Hospital and elsewhere.

In one of many shocking scenes, a Vietnam veteran with injuries similar to Young's sat silence-struck when Young told him he'd had only three months of treatment before he was returned to his home in Kansas City, Mo., on July 16, 2004. In contrast, the Vietnam vet said he'd been hospitalized a full year, followed by several months of rehab. Young, he said, was given short shrift on care.

The lesson in all this is provided most simply by Young himself in a scene from the movie: "Do not make impetuous decisions," he says, whether in deciding to enlist or deciding to go to war.