Advance Screening: PBS' Frontline Haditha Earns a "B-"

Democracy Project ^ | Februrary 16, 2008 | Bruce Kesler

[Interesting Times]

This coming Tuesday, February 19, PBS’s respected Frontline will air its examination of “what really happened in Haditha,” the show’s introduction saying that’s what we should expect of the program.

The show doesn’t meet that goal, and can be criticized for what it does and doesn’t include, meriting a grade of “B-.” That means, the show is definitely worth watching, and deserves a passing grade.

Necessary to a full understanding of Haditha, none but a very few have read or remember the hundreds of pages of Haditha Article 32 hearings, the hundreds of serious newspaper articles and blog posts examining the unfolding of the known facts, or have personal training and experience in combat. Frontline’s “Rules of Engagement” about the Haditha events may be as close as most will come.

The writer/producer/director of the show, Arun Rath, doesn’t have that background for understanding Haditha. Nonetheless, he has made a serious effort, and admits that his view matured from a reflexive liberal view of a massacre:

"I am a journalist and tend to follow world news fairly closely, but before starting work on this project all I knew about the Haditha incident was basically the headlines," Rath told me.

"When I first heard about it I thought it was interesting and counterintuitive. I knew that Marines had more intense training than our other forces, so the idea that so many would suddenly snap under pressure seemed a little strange. But I also knew that horrible things happen in wars, and figured something bad must have happened.

"Once we started to look into the story more deeply, we realized how far off the popular notion of what happened in Haditha was...

[Interesting Times]

Bruce Kesler offers a sneak preview on Frontline's forthcoming special, "Rules of Engagment," as well as some excellent analysis.

[Interesting Times]

Military / media ping....

[RedRover]

Related thread includes an interview with the film's producer: Haditha film coming to Frontline on PBS [Feb 19]

[Interesting Times]

Thanks for the cross-link.

[jdm]

More here as well...

http://www.floppingaces.net/category/the-iraqi-war/haditha-marines/

[peeps36]

Tim Mcjergoff is a lowlife scumbag who should be imprisoned for treason. Time Magazine should be run out of business by the American people.

[dsc]

All the things going on in the world, and this is what PBS chooses to produce.

They should be impaled on stakes.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. The enemy media desperately WANTS a massacre by American troops, so it is refreshing to see at least some balance in this presentation.

[smoothsailing]

American Thinker has weighed in as well....

PBS To Air Haditha documentary

[calcowgirl]

Thanks for the ping!

I don’t much care for the description from Zap2It, though.
I’ll try to remember to tune in, anyway.

Frontline
Rules of Engagement
Tue, Feb 19, 9:00 PM (PST)
Run Time: 60 min.
Genre: Documentary

NEW CC STEREO
Twenty four residents of Haditha, Iraq,
were killed by U.S. forces in what
some believe was a deliberate massacre.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

...the hundreds of serious newspaper articles and blog posts examining the unfolding of the known facts...

Considering that this story was written in the 1960s as a leftist wet dream form letter ( insert current dates and names ) that aspect of the story has zero credibility.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[R. Scott]

A very interesting read.