Tomas Young called the recruiter on September 13 when he saw President Bush at Ground Zero in New York. In time, he was sent to Iraq where, after being there only five days, he was shot, sustaining a crippling injury. Phil Donahue met Tomas while he was still in Walter Reed Army Hospital and full of morphine. Donahue and co-director Ellen Spiro chronicle Tomas's life over the next five years in Body of War.

Young's story is at once heartwarming and tragic. His family certainly supports him in many ways. Not long after getting home, he was married. We see the next few years of that marriage and the stresses that were part of that. Tomas's mother is a liberal democrat, his father is conservative Republican. But those differences are put aside in their support of their son.

We see Tomas become politically active and involved with Iraq Veterans Against the War. He goes to Crawford to protest along with Cindy Sheehan. (Tomas was injured on the same day that Sheehan's son Casey was killed.) He is, to this day, still struggling to get proper care from the VA. There are many difficulties with his situation—he can't control his body temperature, he has to manually drain his bladder several times a day. He's not afraid to show the world how embarrassing this can be.

But the film is not just about Tomas; it is about the politics behind the war that injured him. Interspersed with his story are clips of President Bush and the debate in Congress in October 2002. Most of the speakers support giving the President authorization to use military force. The editing makes it clear that these Representatives and Senators are working from a common script. Others speak against it. Sen. Robert Byrd gets a lot of screen time as he gives the Senate a lesson on the role of the Congress in the Constitution. Then from time to time, the names of a few of the Senators who voted in favor of the war are read off followed by "Aye." In all, 77 Senators voted aye and they each are named. Only later are the names of the 23 who voted "No" read off.

The film makes no claim of balance. It has a message it wants to be heard. Tomas Young wants that message to be heard as well. The message is in part that we need to take better care of those young men and women who, injured or not, have faced danger in service to their country. Both the physical and emotional wounds will be with them for many years—and as with Tomas, many wounds are permanent.

But the film also wants to talk about the political side of the issue. This too Tomas is in agreement with. The push for war in Iraq, and the ready acquiescence of the Congress needs to be looked at. Should Congress have given up its prerogative to declare war? If the reasons given for the war were not true, what moral justification is there for us to be there? Who is responsible for this war?

In a Q&A at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Donahue said that the film "takes the radical position that we should obey the United States Constitution." We have come to think over the past few decades that the President as Commander-in-Chief decides when and how we use the military. But the Constitution was very clear that Congress, not a single person, must decide when war is appropriate. The film argues that the vote in 2002, which was not a declaration or war, was an abrogation of Congress's responsibility.

In a democracy, the responsibility ultimately falls of the people. That is more of the message this film puts forth. Donahue said, "We want people to say, 'Oh my God! We need to do something.'" The film's website offers a variety of ways to be involved, but since the film is being released in an election year, the most obvious way to do something is through the ballot box.