Review of Standard Operating Procedure (2013) by Donald A — 06 Jun 2008

Every American should be required to see this documentary. Is it a perfect doc? No. Is it a fun movie to see? Certainly not. But it does shed some light on the interrogation, humiliation, and torture procedures that are going on in the U.

S.'s military prisons in Iraq. The film gives a voice to the soldiers who were punished for the photos leaked from Abu Ghraib. Should these soldiers have been punished? Probably. They are by no means 100% innocent.

But it is also clear that these kids in their early 20s at the very beginnings of their military careers were thrown under the bus and possibly set up intentionally by their higher-ups. The media jumped on these soldiers and did not pursue the harder questions of why these actions were happening in the first place; why the photos were allowed to be taken; what was happening before, after, and outside the frames of those photos; and what military higher-ups were ordering these actions, knew about these actions, or turned a blind eye to these actions.

There was no accountability. The Iraq War is a debacle. And the U.S. military's standard operating procedures deserve to be interrogated themselves. Errol Morris has told at least part of a story that needed to be told.