The Long Road Home

I really can't understand all the negative reviews this series has garnered as I really enjoyed it. It's not the best acted but it depicts a true series of events and does an excellent job of showing how badly the American forces had prepared for urban warfare at that time.

Sending an open truck, without a radio and full of troops into streets of multi-storey buildings packed with well armed insurgents is obviously, in hindsight, just madness but that was what the American military did. In a similar fashion the UK sent out unarmoured Land Rover Defenders before finding out that they tended to get blown up by unscrupulous terrorists. Lessons were learned the hard way back then and the series does a good job of showing that.

Yes the "homeland" stuff is occasionally a bit cheesy but people "Get over yourselves!" and see the entire series for, overall, a relatively inexpensive good bit of TV entertainment.

Much of the cinematic coverage of Iraq War was focused on fighting against Saddam's army and the Sunni resistance. This movie focuses on the experience of a U.S. Army unit in the midst of the Shiite area of Sadr City. As such it focuses on the Army's attempt to win "hearts and minds" but also deal with an insurgent threat.

The depictions are gritty and realistic. However, the first couple of episodes have a few glitches. One, it implies that Iraq was considered peaceful prior to the unit's arrival in April 2004, when an active insurgency had been under way since the summer of 2003. Also, members of the unit repeatedly say one the name and rank of one of their fellow soldiers over the radio, which is a big communications security "no-no." However, it does a good job depicting the contemporary military, equipment, uniforms and customs.

Sure the acting isn't great but take it for what it is. It's a series depicting a true event that happened to US soldiers. As a veteran myself and living just down the road from Fort Hood, I think it's crazy the nerve that these keyboard warriors on the internet have. It tells the story well. It shows the front line battles and the battles that happen back home that some shows don't touch.

8 soldiers dead n 65 injured just to shovel shit..... wonders of the western rich elite never seize to amaze me anymore.... rip

Several things just make no sense:

1. US Army basically looks dumb and incompetent in this movie

2. They attempt rescue at night but nobody is using night vision and there is no air support.

3. They can't figure out where the 1st squad is located? really? with interpreter and another guy who speaks Arabic they can't ask or figure out their exact address/location? that is dumb.

4. They wave their arms like idiots while rescue drives by instead of shooting enemy who can clearly be seen?

5. Where are all the female soldiers?

6. Why did they need an an unarmored truck with infantry, they were a liability not an asset not once but twice.

7. why so much melodrama? Why focus on backstory of only some random soldiers, why not just do every single one?