"Over There" Is "Over Hyped"
I unfortunately wasted an a few minutes of my life to watch "Over There." A new series on FX about US Army Soldiers serving a tour in Iraq. There are a few bad war movies and tv shows, but this one takes the cake. If the inaccuracies they made in this new show was to keep the real enemy from watching and knowing our real tactics, then they did a SUPERB job.
The first thing I noticed that was fucked up about the tv show was US soldiers on the outskirts of a city behind a small berm in a fire fight with insurgents. I guess you'd have to be in the military to understand how ABSURD a small group of 10 or so soldiers in a pitched battle with insurgents which lasts for 3 days. Where the hell is the back up? There are also females in this battle. If the military knows it is sending soldiers into a battle, such as what seems to have happened on the show. There would not be female soldiers on the front lines with the Grunts, in deliberate fire fights and clearing buildings. Also, I would like the miracle drug they must be using to be fighting for 3 days and not eat at all. Then the pathetic soldier, yelling at other soldiers saying they've only been there for about a week why should they die now? Most people I know, who have been at the VERY front have been in very few fire fights. I can't stand when Hollywood they have rediculous stuff like this to keep it exciting, nevermind reality. Not to mention a guy being blown in half and his lower torso is still walking, which I just laughed at the absurdity of that. Then the guy asking his squad leader before an imminent attack they are going to conduct if they have air support? Maybe for people watching at home and seeing planes bombing buildings and such think that US Soldiers rely heavily on air support. However, the actual Grunts rely on other stuff, such as INDIRECT fire too. We don't need air support as if it is impossible to take an objective like this guy seems to be thinking.
That whole scene was pretty much the reason why I haven't found anything else to complain about till the end, because I just turned the channel until it was almost over.
Near the end of the tv show, they have the soldiers in that unit video conferencing. In both of my tours in Iraq, I NEVER ONCE used that. They have computers with web cams so you DON'T need it. I've never even known anyone to use that. Plus it's such a pain in the ass for a family to come ALL the way across the country just to goto an Army post just to get on video conference for a few minutes. Unless the Soldier is married and his family lives on that post. This one Soldier remarks how all the Soldiers are monsters, but he is proud to be a monster. Most REAL Soldiers wouldn't consider them self a monster. Anytime I fired my weapon, it was to protect myself and my buddies. I don't have any kind of guilty conscience and neither do the other guys. Also, he says they got through the first week, which the rest of them didn't think was possible. Again, this is not bloody where if you're in a battle you have 50% casualties. Just our company had 3 deaths out of 100 or so in 6 months time, not many of us were too worried about not coming home and we did see alot of contact with the enemy.
I conclude that this TV show was horrible. I think it is also a sensitive issue right now, people are dieing over there right now and suffering and they want to make a TV show about it right now? It sounds like they are just commercializing what's been happening and trying to get some money off of it. I found it to be really inaccurate as to what is really going on over there. If these were REAL soldiers and they were in my unit, there is NO WAY I would go off to war with them.
The first thing I noticed that was fucked up about the tv show was US soldiers on the outskirts of a city behind a small berm in a fire fight with insurgents. I guess you'd have to be in the military to understand how ABSURD a small group of 10 or so soldiers in a pitched battle with insurgents which lasts for 3 days. Where the hell is the back up? There are also females in this battle. If the military knows it is sending soldiers into a battle, such as what seems to have happened on the show. There would not be female soldiers on the front lines with the Grunts, in deliberate fire fights and clearing buildings. Also, I would like the miracle drug they must be using to be fighting for 3 days and not eat at all. Then the pathetic soldier, yelling at other soldiers saying they've only been there for about a week why should they die now? Most people I know, who have been at the VERY front have been in very few fire fights. I can't stand when Hollywood they have rediculous stuff like this to keep it exciting, nevermind reality. Not to mention a guy being blown in half and his lower torso is still walking, which I just laughed at the absurdity of that. Then the guy asking his squad leader before an imminent attack they are going to conduct if they have air support? Maybe for people watching at home and seeing planes bombing buildings and such think that US Soldiers rely heavily on air support. However, the actual Grunts rely on other stuff, such as INDIRECT fire too. We don't need air support as if it is impossible to take an objective like this guy seems to be thinking.
That whole scene was pretty much the reason why I haven't found anything else to complain about till the end, because I just turned the channel until it was almost over.
Near the end of the tv show, they have the soldiers in that unit video conferencing. In both of my tours in Iraq, I NEVER ONCE used that. They have computers with web cams so you DON'T need it. I've never even known anyone to use that. Plus it's such a pain in the ass for a family to come ALL the way across the country just to goto an Army post just to get on video conference for a few minutes. Unless the Soldier is married and his family lives on that post. This one Soldier remarks how all the Soldiers are monsters, but he is proud to be a monster. Most REAL Soldiers wouldn't consider them self a monster. Anytime I fired my weapon, it was to protect myself and my buddies. I don't have any kind of guilty conscience and neither do the other guys. Also, he says they got through the first week, which the rest of them didn't think was possible. Again, this is not bloody where if you're in a battle you have 50% casualties. Just our company had 3 deaths out of 100 or so in 6 months time, not many of us were too worried about not coming home and we did see alot of contact with the enemy.
I conclude that this TV show was horrible. I think it is also a sensitive issue right now, people are dieing over there right now and suffering and they want to make a TV show about it right now? It sounds like they are just commercializing what's been happening and trying to get some money off of it. I found it to be really inaccurate as to what is really going on over there. If these were REAL soldiers and they were in my unit, there is NO WAY I would go off to war with them.
