I saw a good play last night called Black Watch which is about the regiments deployment in Iraq during 2004. There was some controversy when the US military command requested that the Black Watch move further north from Basrah out of the British Army's area of operations. At the time the Labour Government were accused of making this a political move to get more friendly with the administration of that time. One interesting thing said in the play is that before the Black Watch arrived just outside of Baghdad, a few thousand US Marines were there and had quite a tough time. Guess how many soldiers from the Black Watch were there? 800.

Interesting 'eh?

For those that don't know, the Black Watch is an old Scottish regiment from the Highlands. Formed in the mid 1700s I think, in the middle of their Iraq deployment they were amalgamated into the other Scottish regiments to form The Scottish Regiment and remain as a battalion. That has happened a fair bit recently as regiments become the size of a battalion which hampers it, as they usually keep regiments on a role by having one doing not much, another training and perhaps the third on an operational deployment. thus when you lack man power you have to combine the forces.

Anyway back to the play. It was really well done and I was pleasantly surprised. Thankfully the actors were all Scottish so I didn't have to go through the suffering of Americans doing awful Scottish accents. Some bits were quite alarming, especially towards the end and there were parts I wanted to cry. It went back and forth to their deployment and the soldiers telling the play writer their accounts, and some of them got very emotional due to depression. The best part is that they actually seemed like squaddies and did a fantastic job!

One thing that raised my attention is my own reaction to it. It showed the horrors of the Iraq war but not the horrors you expected. The emotion at being in that place and so far from home and pretty much by yourself was conveyed very well. I don't imagine many people will see it, but I'll say it in spoilers.

Three of the characters get killed by an IED, one of the characters I could tell was going to ge killed but not the other two. Especially the Sergeant which made me nearly cry.

. The play makes me want to join the military even more which is what surprised me. I'll write a blog on my own military desires and what not another time. Anyway this tour of the Black Watch is known to be very harsh with the aggression of the militias, most likely due to operating in the triangle of death.

Thankfully there wasn't really a political message, there was one but it wasn't the central part. Although it was how these soldiers were played and affected by the politics it was more to do with their own experiences.

All in all a tip top play.