The Valley of Elah

"Sometimes finding the truth is easier than facing it. "

The Valley of Elah is a movie which tells the mental situation for American soldiers, after returning from Iraq.

A father and formal military police sergeant is on the search of his son who is A.W.O.L.- Absent Without Official Leave(Absent WithOut Leave), at the military base in New Mexico, after coming home from Iraq. At the end everyone involved in the case, comes clean and the truth is revealed. He learns that his son has been killed by the men from his squadron.

Why? Because of all the bad things they had experienced in Iraq, the differences from back home, the several people they had killed, as well as accidentally kill civilians, their minds were twisted. Traumatic things had happened, and they could not handle it. They were mentally destroyed and the life home was hard to handle. Being used to kill others in pressed situations was the tipping point, and what drove them to kill a friend, a fellow soldier. We know this as the Post Traumatic Stress Dissorder. They were physically harmed.

Their memories were horrible and being a part of the war had scarred them for life, not just physically, but mentally as well, maybe mentally in particular. This is the life of thousands of soldiers in America today. They have families, but aren't able to take care of them because of their problems. Managing a normal day is hard, because they have to live with the memories, the memories that will haunt them everyday for the rest of their lives. Their lives have been changed, forever.