HBO Avoid Politics in Talking About Iraq Vets: But Some Viewers Don't

I had to write today's feature on St. Petersburg native Mike Jernigan without meeting the Iraq war veteran. But I finished a long phone conversation with him last week wishing I could have hung out a bit in person with the most optimistic guy who I have ever interviewed.

Jernigan is among 10 veterans featured in HBO's Sunday documentary about wounded Iraq veterans called Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq. And he has no harsh words for either the war effort in Iraq or the health care he received after a roadside bomb took away his eyes.

“I do believe veterans are being treated better than the general public thinks they are,"he told me last week. "I was never treated at Walter Reed hospital. I was treated at the National Naval Medical Center. We were cared for very well. I have talked to some people who have been treated at Walter Reed; it depends on who you talk to, you get a different opinion about it. I do know that a lot of people have said that its not as bad as the papers made it out to be. But then I have heard people said it was exactly as the papers made it out be. It’s one of those things, unless you’re there you don’t know.”

Ask him about what went on in Iraq while he was there, and you get a similar answer: “I don’t think anybody can really truly know what its like in iraq unless you’ve  been there... (It's) the same things we’ve faced in just about every conflict we’ve ever been in. I don’t think anyone can truly get a handle on it. I was over there the entire summer of 2004, and I only know part of the story. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t pay too much attention it these days. I’m moving on with my life."

In fact, Jernigan was assured by HBO that the documentary wouldn't take sides on political issues, and it doesn't. But after my story ran today, I got a fair amount of phone calls from people who were a bit disappointed with that strategy.

They were concerned that veterans seem to get great health care in active duty and emergencies, but then find themselves adrift in the morass of the Veterans Administration bureaucracy for continuing care.  Or they were upset that their loves ones had been hurt or killed for a war they didn't think was necessary.

During a July press conference, one of the other subjects -- Army Cpl. Jonathan Bartlett -- did express some frustration with the VA: "I had to threaten my VA with bad press, for them to give me my first set of legs," said Bartlett, who lost both legs in an explosion. "They aren't prepred for how many survivors they're getting. They're not prepared for the fact that we're all in our 20s, some of us very active, who have things to do."

I understand why executive producer James Gandolfini and HBO executives didn't take a political stand. It would have looked too much like they were using soldiers to score political points, and veterans like Jernigan wouln't have gotten involved.

Still, at a time when those who started this conflict have done so much to hide its cost, just telling these stories unvarnished can feel a bit like a subversive act.

Comments

[mike]

Your disappointment is apparent, Eric. Here you have these heroes with harrowing and courageous stories to tell, and your focus is on finding a way to use their words against Bush and the war. Since they didn't bash Bush, you have to tell us about some unnamed people who did. The left has rooted for an American loss since the day we went into Iraq, and emboldened by opposition to the war, they have become virtual agents of the enemy. Under the guise of "getting the truth out there" the left has actively attacked and undermined the troops and the country. You can say you support the troops all you want, but anybody reading this story senses that you have little interest in them unless they're useful to the anti-war agenda.

[Eric Deggans]

I was wondering when our resident conservative would show himself again.

Since I don't believe in this war, I was profoundly saddened by my coversation with Mike Jernigan. He doesn't feel that way, but I think he lost his eyes in a conflict we didn't need to be fighting -- certainly not the way we have fought it.

Denigrate my callers and emailers all you want. But I was struck by the fact that I got about five or six phone calls after this story ran, and nearly every one of them was someone close to a veteran who was upset about how they had been treated by the VA.

And as much as our current military leaders pay lip service to supporting the troops, I don't think they really considered how invading Iraq with a smaller force would endanger them, or how a long-term insurgency would force us to overdeploy active duty military, reserves and the National Guard. Or how we are now forced to maintain a level of occupation in Iraq which is seriously depleting our forces and placing tremendous strains on soldiers.

Sometimes, supporting troops means insisting the government only risk their lives when absolutely necessary, and develop an effective plan for bringing them home.

[mike]

How about winning, Eric? I never, EVER, hear a liberal demand that we have a strategy to win. It's not part of your vocabulary. Your sole focus is sealing an American defeat, and using it to bash Bush. Your reporting of the war reminds me of the Katrina farce. What really happened was a massive and successful rescue operation performed by an agency that is supposed to provide aid after the fact. It resulted solely from a lack of leadership and planning by local leaders in LA. Yet it's portrayed as a massive failure by federal authorities. In Iraq, we have under 4000 dead in 4 years. It's magnificent compared to past wars. A brutal dictator was tried and executed by his countrymen, and those same people went to polls and participated in a free election for the first time in decades. The Kurds in northern Iraq, once gassed and slaughtered, are thriving and living peacefully. It sure ain't perfect, and I'm not sure when we decided that war should be pretty and bloodless, but it ain't that either. It is, however, a hell of a lot better than you and the left make it out to be. In the lead-up to striking Afghanistan, the left was howling about the Russian occupation and predicting tens of thousands of American casualties. I think, having failed to savor an American defeat there, you've gone all-out in your efforts to demoralize the country, and secure a defeat in Iraq. Get back to me if and when we hit 4000 casualties. After you guys slap on your best tux, and ring it up like telethon hosts celebrating a fundraising benchmark, you can tell me all about how much you respect the troops.