The UT Issues Committee showed the war documentary "Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories" Thursday night, and a question-and-answer session with Mike Shiley, the film's creator, followed.

Shiley, who is not a professionally trained journalist, went to Iraq in December 2003 as an independent reporter. The 90-minute film details Shiley's two-month journey inside Iraq, where he interviewed soldiers and local citizens. He equipped himself with only a digital video camera, a homemade press pass using Photoshop and the servces of a Kinkos, and a bullet-proof vest he ordered off the internet that could 'stop multiple AK-47 rounds.'

In the movie he risked his life by traveling through dangerous Sunni territory and joining a tank squadron in night patrols along the Syrian border. He also visited the Kurdish-controlled region in northern Iraq, where citizens praised George W. Bush for his actions.

After the film he discussed U.S. troops, the realities of the war as the media reports them, and what his solution would be to end the war. 

On U.S. soldiers in Iraq

Speaking on a section of the film where a group of young U.S. soldiers rant about the war, Shiley noted that the troops only represented a small segment of all soldiers. He said the military is a cross-section of America. Some soldiers are bright, filled with idealism, and want to make the right decisions. Others can be insensitive and racist, using the term "hajji" to describe all Iraqi people.

The use of the word dehumanizes the enemy, so when it comes time to kill them you aren't killing a human, but killing a "hajji," he said.

"It's very common in these situations to desensitize the enemy in this way. The problem is that not all Iraqis are our enemies."

Sex is also rampant in some sections of the military, according to Shiley. Every night he spent on Camp Anaconda soldiers had sex, and they would often brag about who they slept with the following morning. A young girl in the rant session of the film spoke of having sex in a nearby mosque, a sacred place of worship for the peoples of Iraq that non-Muslims are not allowed to enter.

Shiley also said we are asking too much of our soldiers.

"When occupying a country, your soldiers have to know the culture, and ours don't," he said. "We have to rely upon our soldiers to be our diplomats." Soldiers shouldn't have to speak the language, but they're the only ones on the ground doing anything, he said. Asking our soldiers to go into schools and speak Arabic is like asking a police officer to come over and mow your lawn, he said.

An estimated 4,000 U.S. troops have died, and more than 60,000 are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorders, he said. About 340 soldiers have committed suicide, he said.

On the ‘realities' of the war

Superficial events are overshadowing actual good things that are happening in Iraq, Shiley said. Superficial things are the re-opening of schools, newspapers, and hospitals. In reality the schools would be opened anyway, the newspapers are being shut down as quickly as they are being established, and the doctors are stealing medicine and selling it to wealthy clients in clinics, he said.

Many building projects sit half completed just so the military can say they're building, but they are never fully finished. In addition, inadequate water treatment facilities have led to sweeping cholera outbreaks, Shiley said.

The U.S. military has also changed the way it classifies insurgent attacks to make it appear like attacks are decreasing, he said. During the film, Shiley catches a car filled with bombs engulfed in flames after another car rear-ended it. The bomb-filled car was on its way to a nearby air base, according to Shiley. The incident was initially classified as an insurgent attack, but was later changed to a traffic attack.

On a proposed solution

Shiley recommends partitioning Iraq into safe provinces where citizen Shiites could live their lives in peace. He would hire Shiites and Sunnis from each region to rebuild the country using the 5 million people currently willing and extremely eager to work.

He also suggests sharing the oil revenues based on a per capita of each of the regions, so they have a definite source of income.

In an ‘idealistic' setting, the Iraqi people would decide whether to keep the partitions, he said. Sixty-five percent of Iraqi people believe the country will break up into three separate countries in order to quell ethnic violence, he said.

"But what probably is going to happen, is we will declare victory and go home," he said. The end of his film shows a large slide with "The End," and then the phrase "is nowhere in sight..." appears below. Commenting on the slide, Shiley said:

"Here I am five years later, thinking to myself the end is even further today than when I put the slide in... I am less hopeful today that the end is anywhere in sight."