What you aren't seeing on Iraq

If it wasn't for my listening to DennisMillerRadio podcasts on my radio - I would know nothing about what looks like one of the more important documentaries of the last decade - the story of Baker Company of the 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.

Baker Boys: Inside the Surge, in a nutshell,

As the Baker Boys' three-month deployment unfolds, viewers get a gripping look into the everyday lives of our soldiers on the front. The documentary features first-person, real-time storytelling as the soldiers of Baker Company negotiate new alliances with local Iraqi militias, pay off tribal sheiks for their cooperation, and deal with the fear and uncertainty of being thrust into the middle of counter-insurgency warfare, where money and trust are their most effective weapons. This is a deep penetrating look into the life of a soldier that exposes the raw personal emotion and the honest physical experience of combat soldiers operating in Iraq.

Director Kern Konwiser explains, "The documentary bears witness to the physical and emotional cost paid by American soldiers who, after years of fighting to win the war in Iraq, are now cast into an unfamiliar and unsettling role of winning the peace with non-traditional weapons: talking, trust building, and cash. These tactics stopped the violence and saved lives; it is fascinating, and sometimes unsettling, to see our own soldiers helping and handing out weekly payments larger than what most soldiers earn in a year to the very people who were trying to kill them just weeks before.

Here are three video clips for your review; the original clip and the teasers for Episode 1 & 2 that we have already missed. Episode 3 is tonight. Go to HDNet here and see where you can see it.

Watch it for me - I can't. 1,000 channels of cr@p on my cable, and I can't get this. Again, going back to one of the reasons this blog started; what is the major malfunction with the major American media that we cannot see reporting of this importance and of this quality? A big "thank you" to HDNet - scrappy little network that they are - and the big stink eye to everyone else.

If you have it where you are, watch it for me and tell me what you thought.

I guess all I can do is say Bravo Zulu to Jon Steele for doing this and wait for it to come out in DVD.