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This was a very good discussion on a subject too often ignored, but I think too little attention was paid to an enormous part of this problem, and that is: Was this war justified? It is a moot point to wonder if our actions on the battlefield were justified, if the war itself is a crime.

You touched upon the idea only briefly, by the first "C.O." interviewed--that our Country could be involved in such blantant, and awful, abuses of torture, and reprehensable conduct during a war-especially, during a war, was obviously against the heart, and soul, of anything we grew up believing "America" should be, and that the stated cause of this destruction was found to be false-and even questionable, undermined any justification for it. We have placed these heroic men into a moral morass, which should not be theirs to fight...it should be ours, and we have burdened them with errors in OUR conduct, and imprsioned them for it.

The major conflicts here, were not just a soldier's internal struggles, but a confrontation with something innately wrong, and a thing we should not have allowed to happen. The citizens of this Country abdicated their responsability to decide if this war was justified, and gave all power to a constitutionally illegal action of government: reason gave way to fear, hatred, and revenge, as we knowingly watched the bombs fall on Iraq-- and the end of everything we thought we were fighting for. The blood is on all our hands, and it will take more than an election-or blaming the soldiers, to get it off. This was OUR responsability.

I--unlike many who made this film, am not a part of a "peace movement", as I believe war will exist as long as testosterone does. However, your hopeful idea that C.O.'s could someday outnumber those willing to fight was compelling.

Unfortutnately, there are wars that need to be fought, because aggression is inbred, but we need to hold our leaders--and, ultimately ourselves, accountable for WHERE, AND WHEN...AND WHY, we send our soldiers to fight, and it should be "we the people" who grapple with the moral issues, the tactics used, and the rightousness of it's cause--and never-ever, abandon our rights of accessability, information, records, and power to alter any war done in our name.

The soldiers ARE heroes, and did their part: to go where we sent them, follow their orders, and fight honorably. We, however, have failed OUR part, and to even DISCUSS these men, and women on trial, being harrassed, going to prison, or being "dishonorably" discharged for their protest--WITHOUT condemning the American people, and this PARTICULAR administration instead, is wrong.

If we fail to identify this war as a criminal event, and hold the real instigators responsable, we can never bring justice back, and we may lose our most precious possession: To be who we think we are. This is NOT just a war, like any other, and if we discuss it as if it is, we are missing the real message: We did something horrible to a Country that didn't deserve it, and we must accept it, be sorry for it, and atone, or we are lost.

May God bless those who have suffered, and been punished, for our sakes, and may peace indeed prevail. Until then, however, let's take back the rule of law, and our Democracy: prosecute the unjust, free the just, and re-commit ourselves to a renewed participation, and attention to our fragile form of government, and-above all, teach our children what it should be, their role in it, and how easily it could be destroyed...and how it almost was.

Thank you for the film. "Blessed be the peacemakers..."