At some point in some of our lives – the Iraq war became an issue and stopped being real.

Two neighborhood kids from my hometown chose not to go to college after high school. They opted for the Marines. I grew up with these two brothers, but we went our ways after I was about 10.

Kids do that. They change friendships, change likenesses, even change personalities. Young people often lose touch.

The Iraq War is viciously tearing people apart here in America. But in some cases it’s actually pulling people together.

Each day when I hear of a new attack or another explosion, I wonder about my neighborhood friends. And something makes me feel so proud to tell people that I know two men fighting on the front lines.

The new film “Gunner Palace” has the same effect. To those viciously against the war, the film will reinforce your feelings. Those for the war will understand the costs detailed within and feel that the men and women pictured are really defending freedom. And to those who know someone on the front lines, the movie just might make you smile.

But how can a film about death and destruction make you smile? Because it’s not about shock and awe, but about people. It is strange to see a movie with American soldiers acting so lightheartedly, running around their compound swatting a rat with a broom. At another point in the film we see two other men freestyling outside of Uday Hussein’s bombed out palace.

Michael Tucker’s new documentary film follows the lives of the Army’s 2/3 Artillery, a group that describes themselves as the “Gunners.” They are shacked up in Uday’s old palace, now a heaping pile of rubble. They endure danger on a daily basis, but still find time to kick back in Uday’s swimming pool and find some way to have a decent time.

This aspect of the film will definitely irk some. While these fellows are enduring a very big risk to their lives, many innocent Iraqis are dying on a daily basis. They’re also being threatened with Abu Gharib prison – and we all know what that means by now. While each Iraqi civilian has these thoughts in their mind, these troops are laughing it up.

This disturbed me, and I wondered why these valiant soldiers would behave in such ways. As Americans, we are conditioned to think of the soldier as his or her head shot depicts them – a stern looking individual standing in front of the American flag with a rifle or sword at their side.

But in reality, most of these kids are 18 years old, straight from high school. There have been no four years of higher education to shape their vocabularies.

It’s intense to see an American troop approach a package that may be an explosive device, but it’s even more intense to see how immature many of our own troops really are. It makes it even more disturbing to think about a draft, and how those plucked individuals act in a war setting like this.

There have been an onslaught of documentary films surrounding the Iraq war, and “Gunner Palace” is one more on the ever growing list. If you want to see a side to the American military that you would never hear about from Rush Limbaugh or see on “Hannity and Colmes,” it is worth a look.

“Gunner Palace” opens in Chicago this Friday.