I got this far in writing about Where Soldiers Come From

and then decided whatever I say makes no difference anyway, and if I keep writing about the documentary I'll just get madder about civilians who decide they know what the Army is for and about. Here's what I wrote:

Overall, the documentary film "Where Soldiers Come From" sucks.

The soldiers are soldiers, dedicated to each other and going about their daily, sometimes deadly, job of finding and eliminating improvised explosive devices, IEDs. In Vietnam the things were called command detonated devices, which meant local Viet Cong buried a box or metal container in a road or along a trail and then connected wires and ran the wires to a place of concealment. A VC then sat and waited for American vehicles to come along, and he would touch two wires to batteries and blow up a truck or personnel carrier or jeep, wounding or killing Americans inside.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, IEDs are the jihadists’ or terrorists’ or insurgents’ cheap way of wounding or killing Americans. And, the things are hard to find.