The Iraq war isn’t over. For tens of thousands of soldiers returning from the battlefield, it never will be. Some of these men and women will turn to alcohol and drugs to ease their mental injuries; some will end up homeless, unemployed and divorced. Some will commit suicide. Most will be forgotten.

That will be one of the lasting legacies of the nearly nine-year-long conflict.

Fortunately, there are investigative journalists like Joshua Phillips who have taken great pains to preserve the memories of veterans whose lives have been ravaged—and cut short—by the wars.

War is not politics, it is violence – murder – on an enormous scale. It does not lead to democracy, security, or good governance, it leads to anger, humiliation, and above all else, more violence.

Such a simple story, so moving. Senior citizens meet departing and arriving troops at the airport, giving them handshakes and hugs, passing out cell phones and cookies. As The Way We Get By, winner of the SXSW Special Jury Award, unfolds we see the painful challenges faced by three of the volunteers and the ways they get by, one of which is their volunteer work as troop greeters.