The Baker Boys

Inside The Surge

Fremantle Media Enterprises

R4 DVD

War histories are usually written by historians and military men of high rank many years after the event. They see “the wider picture”. It is rare to see something featuring the common soldier on the spot at the time. Although the Iraq war has been covered widely there is little on how it was perceived by the men in the field. History usually covers what happened, not what the soldiers thought about it.

Cameraman Jon Steele spent three months with Baker Company at their outpost south of Baghdad. The soldiers were distrustful of him at first – one soldier commented that the news photographers were just tagging along with him in the hope that he would get shot while they had their cameras on him so they could get that great news shot. A soldier comments that “they are only highlighting the bad parts of the war”. Another comments that the big news presenters couldn’t give a shit about the soldiers provided they can get a story. Steele came to an agreement with the men. “I’m willing to die with you if you’re willing to talk to me”. It seemed to work and gradually they opened up to him and shared their thoughts and worries.

The area they were in was a noted Al Qaeda stronghold and was barely under Allied control. Their job was to continue pacifying the area and gradually rebuild the infrastructure damaged by the bombing. The local people were of little help. The soldiers in their bulky combat gear, body armour, dark glasses and weapons were intimidating to the women and children. To the men they were just another occupying force. The biggest problem noted by Steele and the soldiers was that when the war finished the Iraqi army was disbanded. This left a lot of unemployed soldiers without jobs to support their families and the $300 offered by Al Qaeda for fighting men was their only option. They had to replace this income from Allied funds. One way to do this was to employ local people to work at their military base. As well as wages the military also handed out things like toothpaste and shampoo and the workers fought over these luxuries. There were never enough to go around.

Another way was to employ the men as local security militias. They were called Concerned Citizens, later changed to Sons of Iraq, and the village Sheiks organized young men to sign up. Corruption was rife and little of the money made its way to the men but it was a start. They faced not only Al Qaeda fighters but militia bands from other villages, armed religious groups and groups of opportunist brigands. The new local militia was not averse to making a bit of money on the side as well. When a bridge across the Tigris River was rebuilt it was guarded by the Sons of Iraq. Some weeks later there were reports that these men were charging local people a “toll” to use “their” bridge.

With such obvious corruption it is no wonder the soldiers’ attitudes to the local people hardened somewhat. With the end of their 15-month tour of duty approaching most just wanted a quiet finish. Some found the boredom difficult to take. The tactics of buying peace seemed to be working so a group of trained soldiers with nobody to fight is bound to get into trouble. Many were unimpressed with the villagers’ dishonesty, the filth and constant begging and corruption. All these attitudes are brought out in Steele’s interviews.

The biggest worry was what would happen to them once they were demobilized from the army. Some would stay on for another five years but those who were intent on leaving the army were concerned about the reports of stress among ex-soldiers. The final chapter of the series shows how some of the men from Baker Company were coping. Not all were able to handle peacetime successfully without the group of good buddies around to support them through their adjustment. Steele points out at the end of the chapter that more veterans took their lives than were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

The series looks at war as it is rarely shown. The human side is often forgotten in the maze of statistics about kills made, tonnages of bombs dropped, and the overall cost of a war. This documentary shows the cost of a war in terms of the human beings who are sent to fight it.

“James, tell me the truth – what was it like?”

“What are you going to tell them?”

“Can’t tell you what it was like. “

“It’s horrible, fun, disgusting – something that has to be experienced”.

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