Plastic, paint, chemicals, tires, trash, batteries, appliances, human waste and even some body parts. All of these were incinerated by the US military and private contractors in burn pits during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Thousands of soldiers who were exposed to the toxic smoke returned home and found themselves sick with respiratory diseases and rare cancers.
Delay, Deny, Hope You Die, a recently completed documentary about the burn pits and their effects on soldiers, is screening at The Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) ,at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12.
Director/producer Greg Lovett first heard about the story when he read Joseph Hickman’s book, The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers, two years ago.
“When I read the book, I was just really disturbed and mad and upset that this is going on, and that nobody is really doing anything about and nobody really knows about it,” he said.
Lovett started the documentary a year later, and it took about a year to complete. The film interviews doctors, lawyers, journalists and sick soldiers, like Sgt. Brian Alvarado, who was exposed to the burn pits as a Marine in in Iraq and now has cancer, hyperthyroidism and a feeding tube that leaves him unable to work.
In a promotional clip of the film, Hickman explains that soldiers were producing at least nine pounds of trash a day in the early days of the way, and the military turned to burn pits to dispose of waste. But a temporary solution became a permanent health hazard when the burn pits remained open despite new options becoming available.
“I think most people don’t understand that this is even happening,” Lovett said. “Maybe with knowledge comes change”
Here’s the thing: in order to make sure the film’s one-night-only screening at the Loft actually happens, the showing needs to sell 74 tickets by Oct. 1. Buy your ticket today here for $10 and click here to view the trailer.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2017.
It is a particular detail of fascism that soldiers are glorified by the very same ruthless generals, greedy entrepreneurs and heartless political hacks who also put them in harm’s way for no good reason, poison them and then deny them decent health care when they return from their overseas ordeals.
I’m sick and tired of right-wingers squawking about “disrespecting the troops” just because someone doesn’t slavishly stand at attention for bombastic jingoistic rituals when a ballgame is about to begin.
You want to respect the troops? You can start by bringing them home from the theaters of torture that we send them to for no good reason, and then maybe try treating them like human beings rather than disposable killing machines.
I agree with skinnyman. I wish a celebrity would take a knee and bring awareness to the criminal negligence our own Dept of Defense gets away with all the time.
People are more outraged at football players using their right to peacefully protest social injustice that is happening in America. They claim disrespect for veterans which is ridiculous since our veterans have fought for our rights to peacefully protest. These same people enraged about kneeling don’t say a word about the blatant DISRESPECT the Dept of Defense and the VA show their soldiers EVERY DAY!!!
Using burn pits and lying about it is criminal. Someone needs to be charged with needlessly killing thousands and thousands of our men and women in uniform. That won’t happen though. Too much money going into the pockets of too many of our politicians.