When Tomas Young saw President Bush on television speaking from the ruins of the Twin Towers, his life changed. Just two days after 9-11, he responded to the call to defend his country by enlisting in the Army. He was 22 years old and lived in Kansas City.
As his basic training began at Ft. Hood, he assumed that he would be shipped off to Afghanistan where the terrorist camps were based, routing out Al Qaeda and Taliban warriors. But soon, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq and everything changed. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld all declared that the enemy was now in Iraq, and that Saddam Hussein, with his huge stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, was an imminent threat to the American way of life.
Tomas arrived in Iraq in late March of 2004, almost exactly one year after the war officially began and ten months after President Bush had declared, “Mission Accomplished.” On April 4, he was sent on his first mission to Sadr City. While riding with fellow soldiers in an unarmored Humvee with no canvas covering, he was shot just above his left collarbone. He later described it as “shooting ducks in a barrel.” He was instantly paralyzed. In his very brief tour of duty, he had not fired a single shot.
Paralyzed and unconscious, Tomas was first evacuated to Kuwait, then Germany and finally moved to Walter Reed Army Medical Center near Washington, D.C. for more long-term treatment.
Tomas’ mother, Cathy Smith, cared for him while he was at Walter Reed. This was a long hard process. As he slowly came back to consciousness and a new life paralyzed from the chest down, he began to question the entire premise of the Iraq war. As he lay in his hospital bed watching the constant TV reports of more and more Americans and Iraqis being killed and wounded, the war didn’t make any sense to him. What did Iraq have to do with the attacks of 9-11 or Islamic terrorists? If there were no weapons of mass destruction, what was the U.S. still doing in Iraq? He knew that everyday young men just like himself were dying and being severely wounded, Iraqis and Americans. And to what purpose?
Cathy asked Tomas if there was any leader in Washington, D.C. that Tomas wanted to meet. Since he was a wounded war hero, she felt she could arrange a visit. Tomas immediately said that he wanted to see Ralph Nader. To Tomas, Ralph was the only national leader speaking out about getting the troops back from Iraq.
So Cathy did some research and tracked down the phone number for Ralph’s D.C. office. Ralph agreed to visit Tomas in the hospital, arriving with his long-time friend Phil Donahue. It was this connection that led to the making of Body of War.
Phil Donahue is best known as the father of the modern television talk show. For nearly three decades, he interviewed everyone — every sitting President, world leaders, rock stars, top authors — the famous and the infamous — from Nelson Mandela to Alice Cooper to Henry Kissinger. Every day, he presented issues and controversial topics to the American public — from war and peace to abortion and gay rights. A frequent guest was consumer advocate Ralph Nader. TV Guide named “Donahue” one of the 50 greatest television programs of all time. Phil retired from his hugely successful television show in 1996
During the 2000 presidential election, Phil actively supported Ralph Nader’s candidacy. But in the 2004 election, Phil did not lend his assistance, but they nonetheless remained good friends. Phil just happened to be visiting Ralph when he asked Phil to accompany him to Walter Reed Hospital.
Phil was deeply moved when he met Tomas for the first time. This was a remarkable and heroic young man. Phil stayed in contact with Tomas as he returned home to Kansas City. As he talked with Tomas about the challenges of creating a new life in a wheelchair, his impeding marriage, and his growing political activism against the war, Phil felt that Tomas’ story should be told. Phil decided to make a documentary film about this unfolding journey. Although he had decades of media experience, Phil had never produced a film. He soon enlisted the partnership of veteran filmmakers Ellen Spiro and Karen Bernstein, both based in Austin, Texas; and film editor Bernadine Colish.
For two decades Ellen Spiro has created award-winning documentaries including Diana's Hair Ego, Greetings from out Here, Roam Sweet Home, Atomic Ed & the Black Hole, Are the Kids Alright? and TROOP 15OO. She built her reputation doing small-scale unobtrusive productions — often as a one-woman crew. The noted documentarian is famous for her ability to bring a sense of humor and warm humanism to her social-justice themes. She is a film professor at the University of Texas at Austin and continues to be a prolific filmmaker. Karen Bernstein has extensive experience working with some of the most prestigious producer/ directors in the documentary field, including Susan Lacy (PBS American Masters), Charlotte Zwerin (PBS American Masters), and Henry Hampton (Blackside). Bernadine Colish is an accomplished editor of documentaries for both feature length films and PBS specials.
Phil, Ellen, Karen and Bernadine became the team bringing Body of War to the screen.
Body of War unfolds on two parallel tracks. On the one hand, we see Tomas evolving into a powerful voice against the war as he struggles to deal with the complexities of a paralyzed body. And on the other hand, we see the historic debate unfolding in the Congress about going to war in Iraq.
The film opens as Tomas and his fiancé Brie prepare for their wedding. However, because of his disability, we see how the simple everyday activities for Tomas are involved and challenging. War is personal and the film takes us into the skin and bones of what it means to have no control over basic bodily functions. In many remarkable scenes, we directly experience how vulnerable and open Tomas is as he interacts with his wife, family, and friends.
For their honeymoon, Tomas and Brie journey to Camp Casey, the anti-war encampment in Crawford, Texas, down the road from President Bush’s Texas ranch. It was here that Cindy Sheehan galvanized the world’s media and jumpstarted a new and growing anti-war movement. Cindy’s son Casey and Tomas were both shot on the same day in Iraq. Tomas speaks publicly, gives interviews, finding his new voice and role. As the film progresses, we witness Tomas’ evolution into a powerful leader, finding fresh abilities out of his disability and expressing his new form of patriotism. He is interviewed by Mike Wallace for “60 Minutes” and featured in a photo essay in The Nation magazine.
On a parallel track, Body of War follows the historic deliberations in the Congress to grant President Bush authority to invade Iraq. During the fall of 2002, both Houses debated the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Forces against Iraq (H. J. Res 114). The House of Representatives adopted the resolution on October 10, by a vote of 296-133. The next day, the Senate passed it by a vote of 77-23. In the film, scenes of Tomas speaking out against the war are interspersed with the packaged debate in both houses of Congress, and the vote by vote tally in the U.S. Senate. (The vote on this resolution remains highly controversial fiver years later. In the current presidential campaign, the vote comes up again and again.)
The foremost voice of restraint in Congress was Senator Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, the longest serving senator in U. S. history, first elected in 1958. His eloquent opposition to this momentous resolution is vividly captured in Body of War:
“This is a real blotch on the Congress and the Chief Executive of the United States forever, for having cast a political vote to send our men and women to war and to possible death in a country that never attacked us, a country that never invaded us, a country that did not, I say. did not then, and does not now, constitute a threat to my country.
I stood and 22 other senators stood with me. No, we will not turn over this power to declare war which the Constitution says Congress shall have — the power to declare war. Article One, Section Eight. So that was no problem to me. I stood by the Constitution, I’m proud of it. And there were 23 of us. The immortal 23.”
In the final riveting scene, the two streams of the film come together, as Tomas visits Senator Byrd in his office on Capitol Hill. Together, they review the historic Senate vote and read aloud the names of the “Immortal 23” who stood against the war.
Eddie Vedder, of Pearl Jam, contributes two original songs to Body of War. He talked to Tomas at length by phone as he prepared to compose the songs, “No More,” and “Long Nights.” As the end credits roll, we hear Eddie’s tribute anthem to Tomas:
I speak for a man who gave for this land
took a bullet in the back for his pay
spilled his blood in the dirt and the dust
and he’s come back to say
That what he has seen is hard to believe
and it does no good to just pray
he asks of us to stand, and we must
end this war today
And in the song’s final verse, Eddie sings:
No more innocents dying,...
No more terrorizing,....
No more eulogizing,..
No more evangelizing,....
No more Presidents lying,.....
No more War