Simone: Thanks and thanks again. This monumental and disturbing piece is among the most important studies to come out of the war, and I use a book by its co-author, Chris Hedges, in many of my classes. The book is "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning." This is really worth a read. Part journalism, part social science, part oral history. All anguish. The story is less a surprise than a jolt. Because there really has not been any war of consequence in which atrocities against civilians have not occurred. And those who have taken my spring class know that there is an enormous literature arguing that the perpetrators of such horrors are not atypical, deviant monsters but -- sadly -- human beings in many of the same ways we all are. What does distinguish the piece is the willingness of many of the soldiers to go on record. I attach a representative quote one of the soldiers who came forward on the record, for this story, a young medic from Brooklyn. It captures some of what you will go through if you take a deep breath and choose to read this: "I go out to the scene and [there was] this little, you know, pudgy little 2-year-old child with the cute little pudgy legs, and I look and she has a bullet through her leg.... An IED [improvised explosive device] went off, the gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me, wasn't crying, wasn't anything, it just looked at me like--I know she couldn't speak. It might sound crazy, but she was like asking me why. You know, Why do I have a bullet in my leg?... I was just like, This is--this is it. This is ridiculous." Steve ________________________________ From: HCJ [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Simone Delgado Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 9:26 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness Just in case you guys haven't read this: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/hedges/ paz, Si ***************** Simone Delgado 917 623 1659 718 609 1411 skype: simdelgado [log in to unmask]