PBS-America At A Crossroad-Please click here to watch the series

I am posting this entry today because this is something you should all go and read/watch. It will give you a better understanding of what our American Soldiers are facing on a daily basis being deployed to Iraq to fight for a country that doesn't want us there and are killing our troops on a daily basis.

Below is a detailed description of what the show consists of and information about each show aired.

America at a Crossroads is a major public television event premiering on PBS in April 2007 that explores the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world — including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America's role overseas.

Aimed at creating a national dialogue surrounding the crucial issues explored in the series, an extensive media and outreach campaign in more than 25 communities accompanies the series. The campaign features screening events with the filmmakers and their subjects in discussions with United States military personnel, leading policy experts, leaders of the Islamic community, scholars from across the country as well as members of the public. Integrated Web and educational initiatives further extend the campaign.

From freedom fighters in Afghanistan to cold-blooded terrorists

Providing an in-depth look at modern, radical Islamic groups, JIHAD: THE MEN AND IDEAS BEHIND AL QAEDA explores the ideas and beliefs that inspire them, along with the challenges they pose for governments in the Middle East and the West. 

With previously unseen footage and first-hand testimony from those who fought, planned, argued, met or lived with them, this is the inside story of Al Qaeda's three leaders: Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the recently killed leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.

This film examines how the blood-soaked careers of these three men were driven by an evolving ideology of violence and hatred towards the West.

From the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1940s to Islamic organizations today, the film offers insightful perspectives of Islam from Western and Middle Eastern journalists, U.S. intelligence experts on the frontlines of the fight against Al Qaeda, and friends and contemporaries of Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri.

It is also the story of how the peaceful and noble religion of Islam was distorted by Islamist terrorists in the name of jihad.

Two years in the making, JIHAD: THE MEN AND IDEAS BEHIND AL QAEDA was filmed on location in the Middle East, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, America and Britain.

Based on extensive original research, the film presents the story of the birth and evolution of Al Qaeda, not through the second-hand reporting of Western journalists, but through powerful testimony from first-hand witnesses.

What is it really like to be a soldier in Iraq?

Filmed in 2005 in some of the most dangerous areas in and around Baghdad, WARRIORS profiles a handful of Army soldiers: five men and one woman.

They range from a squadron leader just weeks into his first combat command to a seasoned sergeant on a night raid in an insurgent hotspot.

WARRIORS opens a compelling, harrowing, and at times humorous, window on some less familiar sides of a soldier's life: a look at who they are, what they do and why.

In this fight against an enemy hidden among the people, a soldier's street level diplomacy is often called on more than the use of his weapon. Contrary to stereotypes, this generation of Army volunteers is better educated on average than the U.S. population at large. And, for many of the American men and women in Iraq, the strongest motivation is a need to serve and feel part of something bigger than themselves.

Above all, WARRIORS reminds us that these soldiers, often merely glimpsed in the news, are our neighbors, with lives they have left behind, many including children and spouses. But their daily work is not in an office. Their jobs require them to face down the daily threat of roadside bombs, sectarian violence and ambush.

During the course of this filming, the soldiers accompanied by the filmmakers were hit by an IED explosion, and then by a rocket-propelled grenade and machine-gun attack. After bringing back their casualties, this same platoon went right back out on patrol. That is part of their reality, part of what it takes to do their job.

Stories and reflections written by American troops

OPERATION HOMECOMING is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. The film is built upon a project created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of servicemen and women and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Through interviews and dramatic readings, the film transforms selections from this collection of writing into a deep examination of the experiences of the men and women who are serving in America's armed forces. At the same time it provides depth and context to these experiences through a broader look at the universal themes of war literature.

The writing in OPERATION HOMECOMING covers the full spectrum — poetry, fiction, memoir, letters, journals and essays. The stories recounted here are sad, funny, violent and uplifting. Yet each one displays an honesty and intensity that is rarely seen in explorations of the war. Through an extraordinary group of men and women it presents a profound window into the human side of America's current conflicts.

At the core of the writing in OPERATION HOMECOMING is a deep desire by all those who have served in war to come to terms with their experiences.  Throughout the film the servicemen and women, young and old, express a profound hope that people will listen to their stories and try to understand what they have seen.

The anatomy of civil war

Day after day, month after month, scores of bodies litter the streets of Baghdad, many of them tortured and mutilated before they were killed.  To staunch the violence, the U.S. has spent billions of dollars to "stand up" Iraq's new army and police forces and make them capable of bringing security to the country.

GANGS OF IRAQ takes a hard look at how the four-year training effort has failed  and how these coalition-trained forces have themselves been infiltrated by various sectarian militias.  While President Bush's new "surge" strategy is sending thousands of new troops to Iraq to help control the violence convulsing the country, the effort to stand up Iraqi forces and go after the militias remains a centerpiece of America's strategy.  But can it work?

FRONTLINE spent two months in Iraq in the fall of 2006 and was embedded with 11-man U.S. advisory teams working with Iraqi forces. GANGS OF IRAQ tracks the history and events that led to the current sectarian crisis, why the Iraqi elections didn't curb escalating Shia-Sunni sectarianism, and how top Iraqi officials have downplayed or denied the growing sectarian militia forces. By the summer of 2006, the coalition had identified at least 23 militias operating in Baghdad.  Some were small splinter groups or criminal gangs. But others were large sectarian militias, and the two largest, the Badr Corps and the Mehdi Army, remained enetrenched within Iraq's police and army.

This report includes candid interviews with key U.S military involved in training Iraqis, including Gen. David Petraeus who took charge of the training effort in 2004 and then in 2007 took command of  all U.S. forces in Iraq,  and top Iraqis, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the powerful Shia political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and Bayan Jabr, who headed Iraq's controversial Ministry of the Interior in 2005-2006.

Richard Perle advocates and defends neoconservative policies

With debate over the war in Iraq still dominating policy discussions, this film follows one of the advocates for the war against Saddam Hussein.

Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle travels the globe articulating, defending and debating the neoconservative case for an assertive American foreign policy. Perle finds no shortage of candidates willing to challenge him on these issues.

In London Perle talks to one of the few journalists who has interviewed Osama Bin Laden, Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of Arabic newspaper Al Quds. Atwan complains that US foreign policy has brought destruction to Iraq, and US invasion is the cause of current bloodshed and chaos in Iraq. Perle replies that chaos is caused by Jihadists and Iraqi insurgents, and if they ceased their attacks, Iraq could be successfully reconstructed.

In Afghanistan, Richard Perle visits Rabia Balkhi Girls' School which was named after one of Afghanistan's most famous female poets.  This school in Kabul had a rich tradition of educating women who went on to leadership roles in Afghan institutions. 

It was closed by the Taliban and then nearly destroyed.  It is now open and once again educating young women.  Perle explains that fundamentalist Islamic regimes deny basic rights to half their population – women.

Also in the film, Richard Perle talks with Stacy Bannerman (Military Families Speak Out) at a demonstration against the war in Iraq in Washington DC.  Bannerman's husband served in Iraq and she explains to Perle why she thinks the war was based on lies and why US forces should withdraw. Perle replies that to leave the job unfinished is not fair on those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.