Sunday debuted Generation Kill, a miniseries based on the book by the same name. From David Simon and Ed Burns, of HBO’s The Wire, I hoped for something good.

Blogger Democracy Project has collected opinions about the show. These range from media interviews to comments left on Amazon from actual Marines in the unit the book described. An excerpt:

The following is written without having read the book or seen the film. Instead, these comments come from a serious Internet search of participants and of observers of the events and of the book and film, from my own Marine Corps experience, and conversations with other Marines.

In brief, the HBO film has an air of authenticity, although some of the events it depicts are incorrect. It is a gritty portrayal of the danger and chaos faced by these Marines, and of some of their good and less good actions and reactions. Marines, and others, who have been in combat will recognize that films, even when not hostile, tend to overdramatize and to exaggerate. The book and film are not untypical. It’s not seen as a hatchet-job, but imperfect, and in some ways misleading, particularly as it describes the leadership as incompetent.

INSERT: This is a long post, one of its points being that the errors and emphasis in this miniseries will feed a negative view of our actions and mission in Iraq. A reviewer for the Washington Post (not the one cited and quoted in the post’s ending excerpts) makes this clear:

Wright and the filmmakers know it is not enough to say that war is hell or that war is evil. The point here also seems to be that war is stupid, this one more so than many others, and that the higher one goes in the hierarchy of command, the stupider the commanders tend to be.

For those without combat background, or views hostile toward our military or the war in Iraq, there’s surely much to give them confirmation of their views. But, otherwise, there is an underlying reality: We choose and train our best and bravest to be brutal as needed to stand between us and those even more brutal. If we desire to personally face those enemies’ brutality, then disparaging our defenders is the way to do it. (INSERT: Slate’s reviewer says of the recon Marines, “the characters here, more often than not, amount to cretinous psychopaths.” )