War in Iraq show graphic, powerful

Oh my God.

More than any other, that was my spontaneous reaction – several times – while watching “Baghdad ER,” an inarguably well-made, important HBO documentary about the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq that is so gory, graphic, intense and, finally, powerful that it is at times almost impossible to watch.

Nevertheless, this should be required viewing for anyone who has any opinion about the war in Iraq. Certainly if you oppose it, the ceaseless brutality of the film, while not overtly political, will strengthen your opposition.

And if you support the war, the unimaginable carnage is a necessary reminder of the near-unbearable cost.

Limbs are amputated with cruel speed, then tossed into hazardous-waste bags. Nauseating wounds are explored with practiced detachment. The toughest men on earth break down and cry.

After hours of effort to prevent it, lives end, just like that. Prayers are said. And the men and women here soldier on, literally, trying to pretend as best they can that this entire operation is something close to normal.

It is not.

The reminders aren’t always as obvious as a gruesome wound, shown in unflinching, stomach-turning detail. Some are more subtle, such as an emergency room doctor casually strapping on his rifle before he walks to a basketball game. Everyone has a weapon, everywhere.

It is insane.

It is war.

We learn at the outset that wounded soldiers in Iraq have a 90 percent survival rate, the highest for U.S. troops in the country’s history. The men and women working to make that happen don’t leave unscathed.

“Even if you’re lucky enough not to go home with war wounds on the outside, if you’re not equipped with coping skills, you’ll definitely have them on the inside,” says Spc. Saidet Lanier, a nurse.

But who has the skills necessary to cope with trying to save a man whose legs have been torn off by an improvised explosive device, a gaping hole in his back, almost no blood left in his body, for all practical purposes dead before he got to the hospital?

How do you wrap your head around trying to comfort a shattered soldier whose greatest loss isn’t his thumb, but his best friend?

“Baghdad ER” is often bewildering. The most severe injuries are almost beyond belief; they’re the kind of thing movies and TV have numbed us to.

Sometimes it’s the relatively minor wounds that are the most excruciating to see. When a surgeon is using his fingers to scoop out who knows what from a hunk blown out of a man’s foot, it is almost – almost – possible to relate.

When a surgeon takes what looks for all the world like the kind of electric knife you’d use to carve a turkey at Thanksgiving to tear through muscle and tissue to amputate a limb, that’s something else altogether.

That is a nightmare.

Again, that is war.

The film isn’t overtly political, but some of the doctors call the war, and all wars, stupid. Yet their efforts are inspiring, and they obviously find the work rewarding.

“This war, and the number of lives it’s affecting, is just unbelievable,” says Maj. Martin Harnish, a surgeon. “I have to think that the people in this country are in a better place for it, or will be in a better place for it. I have to believe that, because otherwise this is just sheer madness to me.”

Just watching “Baghdad ER” is difficult enough. I can’t imagine living it.

With all due respect to Harnish, madness isn’t a strong enough word to convey what you see here. I’m not sure any word is.