Tuan Jim

I read Preston Jones's DVD review of The Ground Truth at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24107 and...

I'd be interested to know what some of this "eye-opening footage" from Basic training was of. As part of the "new army" now, I went through basic 2 1/2 years ago and from all I've heard since then, it's only gotten softer -- mine was a walk in the park compared to my chief going through in 1981.

Was it more of that "kill, kill, kill without mercy" motivational crap that you do before bayonet practice or what?

I'm not debating that a lot of people go through much different experiences in Iraq than my unit, but I'm interested in the whole -- army churning out legions of born killer/psychopath bit.

soonercineaste

It's eye-opening insofar as the "kill, kill" stuff is in there, but also hearing soldiers talk about the racist chants that are being drilled into them, the different things that different recruits went through – the interview footage is just as eye-opening as the actual basic training footage. It's shocking to see, for someone like myself who has never served in the armed forces, that our country is literally molding these recruits into vicious, machine-like killers – I know it's necessary so far as survival is necessary, but it's still just surprising to see that stuff up onscreen (particularly since the director's film isn't exactly pro-war, pro-armed forces; I'd love to know how she pulled that off).