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What’s missing from Alex Garland’s Iraq movie Warfare? Context, motivation and, for the most part, Iraqis | Peter Beaumont

I was there with US soldiers in 2006 and can see why the film-makers zoomed in on them so closely. But it results in glaring flaws

Think back to 2006. Iraq was at the peak of its conflicts. A horrific sectarian war was raging, and al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgent groups, both Sunni and Shia, held sway in substantial areas of the country.

Suicide bombers and IEDs were a daily occurrence targeting both Iraqis and foreign forces, and in cities and towns from Fallujah and Ramadi, to Baqubah and Mosul, US troops were engaged in urban warfare. It was as much about ambush and hit-and-run attacks as about formal battles.