Aftermath: The Remnants of War

As I watched French citizens digging up unexploded shells from WWI, it seemed almost incomprehensible to think of the task they still have ahead of them. Millions of shells were fired in that war and one out of every eight didn't explode. Thousands of those live shells are still buried in the forests and farmlands of France, and every year, several people are wounded or killed by these bombs that are nearly a century old. This film also documents the hundreds of thousands of unexploded shells and live mines still surrounding populated villages in Russia and Bosnia, and the effects still prevalent in Vietnam of Agent Orange. It's a fascinating documentary, and the interviews with the folks who live with these lurking dangers brings a human touch that defines bravery in measurements we rarely see. I was sort of surprised to see that the film didn't cover the estimated 8 to 24 million unexploded cluster bombs still scattered throughout Laos that to date have killed over 5,700 and injured over 5,600. Nor does it cover the fact that nations today are knowingly using weapons whose destructive capabilities will still be viable for thousands of years. In Bosnia, Kuwait and Southern Iraq, the US and Britain used weapons made from uranium-238 (depleted uranium), which upon impact vaporizes into fine dust and gas that causes both heavy-metal poisoning and irradiation to anyone nearby. During the Persian Gulf War, three hundred tons of U-238 were spread over Kuwait and Southern Iraq. According to a US Department of Defense survey, more than 436,000 US troops have entered contaminated battlefields. How many Iraqis have been exposed to date no one knows but the fact that hundreds of Iraqis have scavenged the wreckage of tanks and jeeps and sold the contaminated scrap metal they salvaged throughout Southern Iraq, just boggles the imagination. As of today, over 140,000 US soldiers from the Persian Gulf War have filed for disability, and over 9,600 have died. These weapons are still being used. [IMDb's guidelines ask us to refrain from listing URLs, but one can look up the sources for this information on any search engine: The National Gulf War Resource Center, The Military Toxic Project, The Cluster Munition Coalition, and The Center for Defense Information]

Still, this film is excellent, fascinating and vitally important viewing for everybody, and teachers should consider it for children over 12 years of age.

This movie, though made by Canadians, applies to the entire world. (If you don't want to read about the entire movie, you probably don't to read any further.) France, Russia, Vietnam, and Bosnia are shown as the effects of four different wars, with France being affiliated with the First World War, Russia with the Second World war, Vietnam with the the Vietnam war, and Bosnia with the Bosnian siege of Sarajevo. The movie shows you what normal people are doing to try to clean up after wars, even if those wars were more than 75 years ago. In France, we are shown as some demineurs dig up rusting shells from two world wars. In Russia, we meet a man who makes his living finding the bodies of German soldiers from Germany's failed attempt to conquer Russia. In Vietnam, we are shown the effects of Agent Orange, a herbicide that contains dioxin, that still affects Vietnam today. In Bosnia, we meet a deminer who finds the land mines and shells from a war less than ten years past. After all this, we are given some things to think about at the end of the film, and we are left with the question of why we do not heed the lessons of the past. According to this film, the United States dropped more shells on Vietnam than were dropped on all the countries by all the armies in the Second World War. What lesson did they learn from the past? France estimates it will only take 700 years to completely remove all the shells from World War One. How long will it take the Vietnamese? This would be an excellent film for George W. Bush to see before he declares war on another regime. For all that this movie is depressing and takes the excitement out of war by showing the aftermath, it is a lesson that all world leaders should take a look at. The facts are true, and the viewpoint is that of the common people. I'd say that this is one of the most moving movies I have ever seen, especially since it's not Hollywood. I doubt that Hollywood could have ever made a masterpiece such as this, since they have no real ability to show that the US is being slightly unfair to Vietnam. Hollywood has a slight bias towards the US, and thus many important details would be left out.