My first reaction upon hearing that someone was making a TV show about the Iraq war was, “How tasteless.” But I read CNN’s article about it anyway, thinking that maybe I’d be proven wrong. At first, things looked promising, but then I started to notice that pretty much all of the characters are in the Army due to problems in their lives–one of them joined because he couldn’t follow his real dream, one of them’s there in lieu of a prison sentence, and one of them is being “forced” to serve another 90 days after his yearlong tour. None of the soldiers are described as having chosen to be in the Army, though maybe we can assume that of the characters whose backgrounds aren’t explained in detail.
Later, CNN edits out the word “terrorists”:
An Arab-American in the unit, Tariq Nassiri, deals with a reality many such soldiers face in the Middle East.
“He’s an American, and he’s willing to die for America, but he is aware of his heritage,” explains Omid Abtahi, who plays Nassiri, and whose own brother is a member of the U.S. military serving in Iraq. “Tariq has simply decided that regardless of his heritage, he’s fighting for America, and the (Iraqi dissidents) are the enemy.”
It might end up being an interesting show, but I’m getting the feeling that the overall tone is “look at these poor victim soldiers who have to do what our evil government tells them to”, which is unfair not only to our policymakers but to the soldiers themselves.