The Last 600 Meters: The Battles of Najaf and Fallujah, on PBS

“I think we left too soon.” That is not a so-called “neocon” from the Bush administration speaking. It was current Democrat congressman and Iraq War veteran Seth Mouton discussing the decision to pull out of Najaf. As he and many of his fellow veterans remember the battle, they were on the verge of scoring a decisive victory over the Mahdi Militia, when the politicians agreed to a cease-fire. Unfortunately, political considerations overruling battlefield realities are a recurring theme in Michael Pack’s documentary The Last 600 Meters: The Battles of Najaf and Fallujah, which premieres this Monday on PBS.

Although it premieres tomorrow, Pack’s film consists of interviews that were recorded in 2007, while memories were still fresh (and the participates were clearly inclined towards candor). Fallujah and Najaf ae still considered the American military’s largest battles since the Vietnam War, but there is little understanding of what actually happened, making Pack’s film quite valuable and even necessary viewing.

Time and again, the Marines and Army were forced to pull back just right when they were on the brink of a dealing a crippling blow to the Daesh-adjacent insurgents. In the case of the First Battle of Fallujah, this was particularly galling to the interviewed veterans, because the battle was initially ignited by the humiliating Black Hawk Down-inspired display of the bodies of three murdered American contractors.

However, there were some lessons learned. For weeks, Al-Jazeera broadcast propaganda claiming American forces were intentionally damaging the Fallujah hospital, inflaming the local population against coalition forces (sounds familiar, right?). Consequently, securing the hospital became the first objective of the final big push into Fallujah to silence the disinformation.

In a way, the American military applied those lessons in Najaf when Muqtada al-Sadr occupied the sacred Imam Ali Shrine. Rules of engagement were devised that prevented damage to the mosque, yet still ultimately “squeezed out” the insurgents. At least it seemed to be working until DC agreed to another frustrating cease fire.

Clearly, there are a lot of lessons learned about house-to-house fighting. Again, the Army and Marines developed largely successful techniques that pushed insurgents from densely populated areas to more open industrial districts. Hopefully, these battles will remain in the services’ institutional memories and find a way into the academies’ curriculum.

Indeed, The Last 600 Meters explains incisively explains urban warfare through the words of the soldiers who fought it. Pack strictly adheres to an oral history format, which prevents any form of outside editorializing. However, there are places when the film might have benefited from some succinct background information, to provide greater context.

Regardless, the film draws a sharp contrast between political and military decisions, while vividly capturing the boots-on-the-ground demands placed on our military personnel. The very title says it all. As one soldier explains, they do not decide American foreign policy. They just execute the last 600 meters. Highly recommended any day of the year, but especially on Veterans’ Day, The Last 600 Meters: The Battles of Najaf and Fallujah airs tomorrow night (11/10) on PBS.