Embedded

Published May 26, 2010 at 9:04 p.m.
A casualty of war, and a fierce debate
Linda Bhatia gave her son’s Scout badges to his old pack and his 700 books to his alma mater, Brown University, but she will never let go of the things he had in his final days: his compass, the dimes in his pocket, his wallet, the watch he was probably wearing when a roadside bomb killed him in Afghanistan...

‘He thought he could do something good’ Michael (center) with members of the Human Terrain program.

Linda Bhatia gave her son’s Scout badges to his old pack and his 700 books to his alma mater, Brown University, but she will never let go of the things he had in his final days: his compass, the dimes in his pocket, his wallet, the watch he was probably wearing when a roadside bomb killed him in Afghanistan.

Two years have passed since the military sent back Michael’s possessions in a box, but it seems like yesterday. She misses him. And while she grieves, the academic world continues to argue over whether the 31-year-old scholar, not soldier, should have been in Afghanistan in the first place.

Dozens of stories have been written about Michael since his death and now there is a documentary, Human Terrain, which profiles the young man and also explores the simmering debate over a military program that assigns academics, like Michael, to combat units in the war against insurgents.

Winner of the Audience Award at Italy’s prestigious Festival dei Popoli, the film will be shown on May 29 at 4:15 pm at the Avon Cinema. A question-and-answer session will follow with the co-directors: James Der Derian, a professor at Brown’s Watson Institute for International Studies, and local filmmakers David and Michael Udris. Proceeds will go to the Michael Bhatia Memorial Fund at Brown.

The military’s Human Terrain System was created in 2006 after commanders realized that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan had no cultural knowledge of the battle zone. Under the program — which has so far deployed about 27 teams — scholars in military units interview villagers and tribal leaders and advise soldiers on local politics, economics, and tribal dynamics.

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