Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, General David Petraeus and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado served — along with 1.5 million others — U.S. military interests in the Iraq war beginning in 2003.

The U.S. spent at least $2 trillion, lost about 4,500 service people and were responsible for a few hundred thousand Iraqi deaths. We still have 2,500 troops there who assist their fragile government in counterterrorism efforts against ISIS activists who remain mostly underground.

This war was advocated by then-President George W. Bush, approved by Congress and initially supported by the American public. But it became unpopular within a year or two. A young Barack Obama called it a “dumb war,” a middle-aged Donald Trump called it a disaster and Joe Biden apologized for having voted for it when he was a U.S. senator. Vance was proud to have served in the Marines in Iraq but later said he felt deceived about the stated purposes of the war.

“Warfare” playing at local theaters doesn’t let us forget about the Iraq War. It is a viscerally intense and dramatic recreation of two days gone bad in the city of Ramadi, an hour or so west of Baghdad. It shares the memories of a U.S. Navy SEAL squad engaged in a brutal surveillance/sniper assignment that goes awry.

Bush authorized this “regime change” mission to punish Iraq’s dictator for his possible ties to Osama bin Laden and because he believed Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction that would destabilize the region and be a threat to the world.

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Iraq was also a major oil producing nation. Indeed, its economy depended on oil. Ninety percent of its exports were oil. Not a few critics believed this war was greatly influenced by oil. Asked one critic “How likely is it we would be there if Iraq’s main product was asparagus?”

Movie critics have hailed “Warfare” for being admirable, “brutal and elegant” at the same time. It is also hard to watch, loud, scary and it vividly depicts fear, frustration, helplessness and grenades and IEDs exploding — almost as if it was in the theater.

This is not a recruitment film like “Top Gun” or “Captain America.” There is no effort here to glamorize war. It merely reminds us of the sacrifices and hardship of those who serve in combat. It honors these SEALS and reminds civilians of our debt to those who serve. It also, if indirectly, makes us conscious of how challenging it is to settle international disputes by military means.

Most of the movie shows SEAL members scoping out the neighborhood from an urban apartment they have commandeered. But they are ambushed and pinned down. They call for evacuation help and “show-of-force” air support. But some of them are badly wounded and at least one dies — and the scenes are stark.

This movie provides no context and is apolitical. Yet it can be seen as a companion film to “The Hurt Locker” (2009) and “American Sniper” (2015). Those films focus on specific individuals and heroics. A critical documentary “No End in Sight” (2007) emphasizes the flawed intelligence and inept planning that undermined U.S. war efforts in Iraq.

The events depicted in this film occur in November 2006. That same month Republicans suffered major defeats in the congressional elections. Then-President George Bush felt compelled to fire his good friend Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In England, the only ally who was willing to join us, Tony Blair suffered major protests including in his own party and criticisms that he was a mere tool of Americans. He was subjected to shouts that “Blair Lied, People Died.” Both Bush and Blair have been haunted by this failed war.

The U.S. pulled our troops out of Iraq in 2011 but re-sent troops back there to help suppress ISIS in 2014 and later.

Americans are still involved in wars, right now for example, in Yemen. And we are deeply involved in “conflict resolution” efforts in Ukraine and Gaza.

There is a strong strain of isolationism in America, yet we are more militarily involved in the world than most of us understand.

We currently have military bases or installations in about 80 countries — and about 165,000 military stationed abroad (the biggest presences are in Japan, South Korea and Germany). And, as we have been reminded recently, we have a base and troops in Greenland. Who knows how many military satellites we may have?

War has been a constant of the human condition since the beginning of recorded history. Civilization, democracy and modernity hasn’t made a difference. Out of the last 3,500 years, according to one account, fewer than 300 years have been without war somewhere on earth.

“War is a matter of vital importance to the State, the province of life and death, the road to survival or ruin,” said Chinese General Sun Tzu. “It is mandatory that it be studied thoroughly.”

“Warfare” is a valuable addition to the “war as Hell” narrative and reminds of a war most of us want to forget.  We cannot forget wars. Our generation now has an invaluable library of instructive and consciousness-raising war films. And they should be watched and studied. Here is a select suggestive list:

“The Civil War” Ken Burns series (1990)

“Sergeant York” (1941)

“Patton” (1970)

“Gettysburg” (1993)

“Saving Private Ryan” (1998)

“American Sniper” (2015)

“Twelve O’Clock High” (1950)

“The Deer Hunter” (1978)

“Apocalypse Now” (1979)

“Platoon” (1979)

“Black Hawk Down” (2001)

“The Fog of War” (2004)

“No End in Sight” 2007

“The Hurt Locker” (2009)]

“Zero Dark Thirty” (2017)

Tom Cronin regularly writes on politics and policy. He is co-author of a forthcoming book called “American Politics Film Festival.”