ARMADILLO Full Movie

GHR

GHR

Active member
“Armadillo” is a Danish documentary that follows a battalion through running gun battles as well as cagey post-combat debriefings, fraught negotiations with locals, and candid downtime. The soldiers who appear in the film—which is shot in dramatically saturated color and smoothly edited for a near fiction-feature effect (and affect)—all volunteered to do so.

The soldiers of the ISAF Team 7 are from my regiment and I know some of them personally. I was with Team 7 but in another battalion. I would strongly recommend that you see it. It gives, in my opinion, a good insight into what you as a young soldier was exposed to.

I must mention that in the beginning of part 9 there are close-ups of corpses. But such was the reality we were in.

Full Movie with English subtitles.


Part 1: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG4-p4OXT4Q&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG4-p4OXT4Q&feature=related[/ame]

Part 2: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBbyGQDrdJE&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBbyGQDrdJE&feature=related[/ame]

Part 3: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKQosdjt2Fc&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKQosdjt2Fc&feature=related[/ame]

Part 4: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2ONHIUs78&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2ONHIUs78&feature=related[/ame]

Part 5: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwz_V6qVVrM&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwz_V6qVVrM&feature=related[/ame]

Part 6: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7-w6BRoaS0&NR=1"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7-w6BRoaS0&NR=1[/ame]

Part 7: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVjCrAuFSGE&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVjCrAuFSGE&feature=related[/ame]

Part 8: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnFLBrEHqBg&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnFLBrEHqBg&feature=related[/ame]

Part 9: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_L2sheKOLk&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_L2sheKOLk&feature=related[/ame]

Part 10: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jk26AiuIdY&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jk26AiuIdY&feature=related[/ame]

Part 11: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgqVIwIODN8&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgqVIwIODN8&feature=related[/ame]
 
Whether you are for or against the war, whether one believes that Denmark has something to do there or not and regardless of your political color, "Armadillo" is a story that is gripping, exciting and brutal, and I understand a little better war's impact on our soldiers.
 
And I ask myself one question, after seeing that, why would any Dane travel further than a walking distance from the Carlsberg brewery... :roll:
 
I can understand that you as a soldier, wants to test what you have learned in theory also works in practice. It´s perfectly all right to think like that.
 
Seehund said:
I can understand that you as a soldier, wants to test what you have learned in theory also works in practice. It´s perfectly all right to think like that.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I have an urge to disagree with you there.

The things I learned as a soldier....it was things that I would have nightmares about for the rest of my life if I had to apply them to another living person.
But that was back in the days when we was expecting the Spetznaz crawling onto the beaches every moment, and the # 1. rule was to forget all the other rules.

The ROE has been tightened, and restrictions are harder, but the objective is mostly the same, except for one thing....we're not defending our own turf this time.

Carlsberg brewery is worth defending, but some God-forsaken pile of rocks and gravel in Afghanistan...
 
If that’s how you feel, then you obviously don’t choose a job as professional soldier. I suspect that you have completed your national service in the 80s and I don’t think that the difference in the training of soldiers in Norway and Denmark is that big. We were primarily trained to hold out until the rest of NATO came to our aid.

The world is different after the Wall came down. There are no longer two large blocks that threaten each other. Danish foreign policy has become more aggressive and consistent and therefore there are Danish soldiers in Afghanistan today. As a professional soldier you are bound by a contract to go to places where the Danish parliament wants you to participate.

There are probably as many reasons as there are Danish soldiers in Afghanistan on why they have volunteered for the second or third time. I don’t believe that it is for God, Queen and Country but I understand why they as professional soldiers want to test themselves. Although going to war and kill or be killed is viewed with disgust by most people.

While I remember, Carlsberg is not worth defending. There are many small breweries that makes beer that is 100 times better. ;)
 
Seehund said:
If that’s how you feel, then you obviously don’t choose a job as professional soldier. I suspect that you have completed your national service in the 80s and I don’t think that the difference in the training of soldiers in Norway and Denmark is that big. We were primarily trained to hold out until the rest of NATO came to our aid.

The world is different after the Wall came down. There are no longer two large blocks that threaten each other. Danish foreign policy has become more aggressive and consistent and therefore there are Danish soldiers in Afghanistan today. As a professional soldier you are bound by a contract to go to places where the Danish parliament wants you to participate.

There are probably as many reasons as there are Danish soldiers in Afghanistan on why they have volunteered for the second or third time. I don’t believe that it is for God, Queen and Country but I understand why they as professional soldiers want to test themselves. Although going to war and kill or be killed is viewed with disgust by most people.

While I remember, Carlsberg is not worth defending. There are many small breweries that makes beer that is 100 times better. ;)
Click to expand...

At some point, not so many years ago, I would have done it, but as it has turned out today, there's no way that I'll march out to some far-away battlefield just beccause our politicians wants to boast and eat cherries with the big-guys.

The same politicians who have done their best to cut defence-budgets to a minimum, are the ones who are most eager to send our troops into international operations, at the expense of the ones left behind here.
Behind the cirtain the staff is trying to put the brakes on, simply beccause the resouces are getting depleted here.
The regular armed forces can no longer deliver enough personel for Int.Ops. so in desperation they have started pulling personel from the ranks of the Home Guard.
And there you have a contradiction of terms...

So every time a politician speaks about sending planes to Int.Ops. the my friends in the air force pulls the old joke: "One plane, or both?"

Carlsberg was only mentioned beccause it's Danish, my favourite brewery is in Germany, unfortuneately on a location I would deem to be indefendable.
But on the other hand, the only reason for invading that place would be the brewery itself. ;-)
 
I understand your point. I don´t think our way of thinking lie that far apart.
Funny that Denmark and Norway are similar in this area. The Danish Home Guard are also send to Afganistan.
 
And the US deployed National Guard in Iraq so they could free up regular troops for Afghanistan, maybe we all have more in common than we know.

Besides the reluctance to trust our politicians all the way that is.. :cheers:
 
I believe the making of a movie like this is a good thing, not many people know what is really going on in international operations and therefor they are making wrong accusations about why young people wants to join the army and what they are doing "downthere"..
 
It's not just that Strauss, it's also the fact that most of the politicians who vote in favour of sending troops to int.ops. haven't got the slightest clue about what they are sending their troops into.
Some seem to think that their troops will serve as a kind of traffic-police, and then they get furious when they discover that the troops are out on combat patrols, and actually use the weapons they're issued...end even kill enemies...

And then, instead of supporting their soldiers, they start to critisize them for doing their job... :confused:

Another thing, as these missions keep dragging out in time, the supply of fresh troops start to dry up, and they have to send soldiers who may not be well prepared for the task. :?
 
I think the debate in Denmark has been characterized by an enormous naivety.

One is inclined to assess the soldiers actions from the context in which you find yourself, and it is highly misguided. One has to understand the soldiers conduct in light of the context they are in. The soldiers are sent to Afghanistan to defeat Taliban. But it’s our politicians fault. They speak of our commitment, our presence, our contribution, and our efforts. Why don’t they just say it' straight out that we are at war? They try to present the war as a major reconstruction project. And the military is subject to a political system. They follow the line the politicians sets. And the result is that the Danes have a very sterile image of the war. We have not seen much blood before now. The ugly consequences of war have been removed from TV. The logic seems to be that we can kill, but it must not be too ugly.

But don’t misunderstand me now. I have chosen to be a soldier and go to Afghanistan. I do the job the Danish parliament wants me to do. But the Danish citizen has a right to know how we are doing it. It's not exactly flowers coming out of my rifle barrel.
 
Wow! great documentary.
Same reality as British soldiers are experiencing.

Thanks for sharing.
 
While Armadillo might have been a reasonably accurate depiction of the harsh realities the ISAF force face in The Stan without revealing TTP,s and SOP,s I still would prefer that no cameras whatsoever were ever allowed into the combatzones.
There is no need to know what is going on, the why,s the where,s the what,s and the who,s.

Infact this type of movie can only damage the morale and will to fight for the troops.
Just like in this case when an investigation were launched into the killings of the Taleban fighters.
They opened fire, they chose the week position.
That is a tactical bingo.
But since there were cameras there these soldiers were investigated?
Those soldiers will probably think twice before closing with and destroying the enemy the next time.
Indecision in battle will get men killed.

That is b******t frankly.

My 02 on the subject.

KJ sends..
 
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I totally agree with you KJ.
I judge it of course from my own experience and as such I thought it was interesting.
 
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