Afghanistan is now the longest war in United States history. Soldiers are shipping out every day, institutionalized to fight the elusive “war in Afghanistan.” Civilians and villagers are caught between the Taliban and the United States. Often, soldiers are too busy trying to survive to ask the metaphysically political questions like, “why are we here?”

Stories about politics are rarely stories about people, but stories about people are often stories about politics. Restrepo is the title of a film by Tim Hetherington telling one of these stories. Restrepo was the medic. He was killed early in the deployment and became a metaphor for every soldier in the platoon. Now, Tim Hetherington joins us in the studio to describe his experiences as a war reporter creating a documentary film called Restrepo, not about the politics of Afghanistan but about the soldiers affected by politics in Afghanistan.