Video exclusive: Junger making HBO doc on Tim Hetherington

Oscar-nominated documentarian Tim Hetherington (pictured), who died earlier this year, is to become the subject of a documentary himself, with HBO commissioning his friend and Restrepo co-director Sebastian Junger to make a special focusing on his life and work, ...

The second project in the works, Battle Company, will be a 3 x 60-minute series acting as a sequel of sorts to Restrepo. The program will comprise footage shot by Junger and Hetherington in Afghanistan, of which “around 95%” will be previously unaired.

“The focus will be on the characters at [Outpost] Restrepo, rather than the troops and the deployment,” Quested explained. “So it’s more about each of the individual soldiers’ stories.

The news comes with Restrepo continuing to clock up awards and award nominations, nearly two years after premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

The movie "RESTREPO" is raw as it happened footage of one small Platoon of sky Soldiers from the 2/503rd AIRBORNE, Battle Co. ("The Rock") - during their grueling 15 month deployment in the High Hindu Kush Mts. of N. Eastern Afghanistan.

Perched high on a tiny fire base they literally pick axed off a mountain top, surrounded by Taliban - they were 'The Spear" - the only soldiers between the Taliban hopping back and forth over the Paki border and the rest of U.S./Allied forces.

Done with no political agenda, no 'message', no Hollywood hands or 'Brass" input on it, it's WAR as it is for the soldier.

the documentary won the top honor at Sundance - GRAND JURY AWARD - and went on to win film festivals across the county and was up for an Oscar - the last ceremony Tim attended before his death.

The movie just garnered two Emmys.

If you haven't seen RESTREPO, and you want to honor our troops and what they go through - watch it. It's on National Geo (they bought all rights) and DVD.

and mark your calendars for the new 3-piece doc.

The least we can do to support our troops is to get a clue of what they live, fighting barbarians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6-3I9JHllc&feature=player_embedded

I wonder if this video clip will be in the new series...

Here, soldiers return to RESTREPO after a few days R&R. It’s a 2-hour climb straight up the mountain - is you watch, you can see the valley far below.

This little clip tells a big story. It shows the isolation of the the little fire base...as Sebastian explained it: “We were, essentially, on Mars.” (For most of the deployment, they had no running water, no heat, no facilities of any kind - under almost daily firefights and ambushes on patrol to/from villages.)

Cunningham was know for carrying the heaviest of loads to bring back precious treats for the Brothers. The little black dog, “Airborne”, provided a tiny respite of humanity. (When they rotated back to base for a few days of R&R, the first thing they was burn their ripped up, shot up, dirt/sweat encrusted uniforms.

Listening to the background noise of the Muslim call to prayer and realizing they had that going on 5 times a day, starting at four in the morning, along with all the rest, (over a thousand firefights, highest losses, etc., in what was called “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth: - you get just a tiny glimpse.

The simple folding chair was a major treat - a step up from sitting on rocks.
Fortunately, this day, they weren’t fired on.

Through it all, they never lost their sense of humor...

Here’s another bit of humor in the valley. the firebase was so remote, the only way of getting supplies to them was air drop.

these drops often missed the tiny base and landed in the valley making it necessary to go outside the wire to retrieve. this put them in extra danger from attacks and the loads, if they could retrieve them before the Tallies or villagers got them - were too heavy to hike up the mountain. They rented donkeys to pack ‘em up to base.

this sometimes resulted in some humorous moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_nXt-t9R5g

Junger is at the top of that very short list of true journalists today. I’ll look forward to seeing this.

Spot on.

Most war 'embeds' went in for a day or two -maybe a week, then came back and wrote what 'it was all about" - most often from their own political view - or agenda aforehand.

Sebastian and Tim embedded for the right reasons and proved themselves trusted 'Brothers' who weren't there to push an agenda and who carried their loads and kept up with the soldiers on patrol in order not to cause added danger to them.

One time, Tim had a serious injury to his Achilles Heel - but pushed on through it (they were in the middle of a fierce firefight in the mountains) - and managed to climb the mountain back to base without slowing them up.

Tim lost his life this spring in the beginning of the Libya debacle. He caught a round in his leg and bled out on the way to an aid station - in the back of a pickup with no one trained to stop the bleeding.

He leaves a deep hole in all our hearts.

You think they were up there stopping Taliban from moving through the valley? They were just up there getting shot it. The locals didn't trust them or want them around. That documentary more than anything showed me how pointless and counterproductive our presence in that country really is.

You make your "think" from watching the movie. Good. You have some valid points.

However, they went down into the valley nearly every day, on patrols, where they encountered their fiercest fighting.

Their objective was to keep the Taliban engaged so as to keep them from moving further down toward Kabal.

the CICINO pulled our troops out of the Kunar over a year ago - (I won't go into details because it would make a true Americans blood boil, what he did/is doing to our troops) - but suffice it to say, if you've been watching the news, there has since been a great uptick in the attacks on Kabal, with great loss of life.

As to more of what "I think" about that deployment? My grandson, who grew up in my home, was Juan Restrepo's roommate back at base and they deployed together. I spent those 15 months of their deployment in touch with them - and doing a lot of praying, burning candles and running a "Adopt a Platoon" drive that enabled a friend and me to pack and ship over 100 boxes of food and supplies to them.

I have a fair to middling understanding of what they went through and what they accomplished.

Now if you want to get into what has happened to our troops and their ability to fight since this current CICINO put in his ROE that tie our soldiers behind their backs, often deny them air cover when pinned down and getting killed - ie, giving the advantage to the enemy and resulting in 63% of our troops killed in the war JUST UNDER HIS REGIME - well, that's another whole can o'worms.

The ROE is what McChrystal wanted, and Petraues supported coincident with the COIN strategy. It's disingenuous to pin them solely on the CINC. They're trying to avoid killing and upsetting the civilians we're supposed to be 'helping'. The civilians who just want us to go away, and who support the people that are fighting us for being there.

The simple fact is the people of Afghanistan don't want us there, and don't support the corrupt 'Islamic Republic' our presence props up. The increase in casualties corresponds to the increase in targets (deployed soldiers) in country.

Obama ramped up dramatically our presence, and consequently our casualties increased. When you have Americans on more hill tops, they'll draw more fire than if they weren't there.

Regarding Junger - I watched him on CSPAN Booknotes and it was very impressive how forthright he was about what his fellow journalists were doing (i.e., flying into Kabul, recording video against the backdrop of the skyline and distant mountains, then turning around and flying out without ever having left the airport proper.)

Junger and Hetherington were right there and for long periods, trying to capture in depth the essence of what is like to be in that world.

Junger's A Death in Belmont is a remarkable book and War was superb. If we could only have perhaps 10,000 more like them.

So you believe McCrystal et al crafted these rules of engagement that give the Taliban the upper hand, the first shot, and denied our troops air cover - all tactics the Taliban fast took advantage of and laughed all the way.

Or did McCrystal et al get their marching orders from the CIC and had no choice but to implement them? You really think the CICINO, especially in those first heady months of “I WON!” let the generals rule the day?

The following incident is NOT an isolated one.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/09/08/75036/were-pinned-down-4-us-marines.html

the stats from April - now up to 63%

http://cnsnews.cloud.clearpathhosting.com/news/article/60-us-military-deaths-afghanistan-have-occurred-obama-was-inaugurated-2009

It’s known that this regime in DC has been talking/bribing the Taliban for over two years. The CICINO doesn’t see the Taliban as enemy - only al Queda.

Perhaps this is why our troops were pulled out of Kunar and the Korengal Valley - including Restrepo OP - and the Pesche Valley were just handed over to the Taliban? They didn’t have to fight for it. Our troops were just pulled out AND had to leave caches of weapons for the Taliban - which the Tallies greatly appreciated and vowed to use to kill more of our troops - and they did. How is that not treason?

And NOW, after the uptick of violence in Kabal and points south of the Kunar - directly due to our troops being pulled out, leaving nothing to stop the tallies from flooding over from Pakistan and having an unimpeded route beyond the Kunar.

In addition, after the Tallies have had a year and a half to get reestablished and dug in tight in the Kunar - oops. Now the big error is realized and they are sending our troops BACK into the Kunar - in less numbers that were there before, which was always undermanned. So: send less troops back in - into the valleys that the Taliban are now fully dug into - and what will be the results? (Many of the Village leaders were helping us, trusting we wouldn’t pull out and leave them at the mercy of retaliation.
We did. they will not help us again. They have a vested interest in keeping their heads.

You’ll notice the two clips below are NOT from American media. Neither does the media report on the number of KIA’s anymore. (Under Bush, the KIA’s were scrolled across the TV screens daily. Now it’s crickets.)

Restrepo - April 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WamBeYQeRvE

another cache left for the Tallies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uj6sRlzgik&feature=fvwrel

and none dare call it treason?

So you believe McCrystal et al crafted these rules of engagement

Yes, and the record supports it. McCrystal thought he was doing the right thing reducing American firepower to win 'hearts and minds'. If you have evidence the ROE came from Obama and was merely passed on by McCrystal, I'd be happy to see it.

Petraeus is essentially no different, and said in Congressional hearings, "It's really about the implementation of the rules of engagement and the tactical directive, both of which I think are fundamentally sound... I don't see any reason to change them in significant ways. Rather what we do need to do is make sure that the intent behind those—the intent being to reduce the lost of innocent civilian life in the course of military operation to an absolute minimum. That's an imperative for any counter-insurgent. We must achieve that and I have pledged to continue to do that, to continue the great work Gen. McChrystal did in that regard. But at the same time we have to find that balance between ensuring that we also bring every thing to bear if our troopers get in a tough spot."

and none dare call it treason?

I think sending Americans who have sworn an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution half way around the world to defend a corrupt 'Islamic Republic' is the real treason. Idiotic politicians and a deluded public will make sure that hundreds more Americans die, and thousands more are wounded, in the futile bid to impose a government upon the Afghan society before we finally get out of there. Some folks learn from history, others just insist on repeating it.

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