Full Battle Rattle is also the story of a group of people brought together in an unusual moment in time, in an unusual place. The film, we hope, provides a snapshot of their lives as they undergo profound transformation. For the soldiers of the 5-82 Battalion, war and Iraq (and possibly death) loom on the horizon. For the Iraqi role players, Iraq, their native homeland, recedes into the past (and is destroyed), even as it materializes, in simulated form, in front of them. They are all on the journey to become Americans. Unexpectedly, for Sgt. Paul Greene, who plays an insurgent in Medina Wasl, Iraq is both past, present and future, as he rudely discovers when, near the end of the film, he is deployed a third time.

Finally, Full Battle Rattle offers a glimpse inside the soul of the American war machine, presented in all its surreal, shocking power. There are 13 villages in the simulation, and new ones on the horizon. The Army employs 300 Iraqi American role players to populate these villages. Army Brigades (approximately 3000 soldiers) travel through the simulation nearly every month. And a military city of 15,000 - Fort Irwin - exists to support the operation of the simulation. What was once a cold war training facility, in which tanks battled each other in a simulated Eastern Front, has evolved into a web of villages in which an entire nation has been simulated, with rival tribes, an army of its own, two news networks, a civilian leadership, a court system, an insurgency, a radical Shiite militia, live goats, amputees, and robotic mannequins.

The irony was not lost on us that while Iraq disintegrates, a new, ersatz Iraq rises in the desert, 40 miles from Barstow, California.

Full Battle Rattle premieres Monday January 12th at 9p et/pt.