The Good Soldiers

by David Finkel

This book is about the surge in Iraq from 2007-2008 and is an insider's look at the life and challenges faced by the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich. It looks at the personal experiences of the men on the ground, unbiased by political rhetoric.

Reading through the news, one can see soldier casualties as of perhaps one soldier KIA and may regard this as a low number. This book puts a face of that one soldier who died in the war is not just a statistic but a real person. It is someone's father, mother, brother, sister, best friend.

One of the most interesting part of this book is on a very disturbing video called Collateral Murder from Wikileaks. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the army was unethical and the soldiers were trigger-happy. After reading The Good Soldiers, I see another perspective. That the soldiers are so disillusioned by the war and are trying to help people and a certain section of these group of this people are trying to kill them for it. The soldiers themselves fear for their lives every single day, their nerves strained to such a degree that although they do not wish to kill anyone, the mentality is that of to pull the trigger before the trigger is pulled on you.

Last but also the most important, are the civilians.They are the victims in this as they always are in wars. To support the Americans means to betray your country and you may be killed by the insurgent militia. But to not help the Americans would mean when the Americans leave, they would be under the power of the insurgent militia which would likely be ruthless seeing even now they have no regard for them. The common Iraqi is caught between two evils and all they can do is just to keep quiet and hope for the best which is nowhere in sight.

This book is really an eye-opener of what the Iraqi war means and how it is really more of a war of winning hearts and minds but the payment are people laying their lives down for that cause. At the end of the day one has to ask is it really worth the lives given for this win and a more important question of what it really means to win?

Absurdistan

by Eric Campbell

Eric Campbel is a foreign correspondent for the ABC. He started out as TV presenter for travel shows promoting places around Australia. But he then found that absolutely boring and wanted to do reporting that actually mattered. So he applied relentlessly to be an international journalist. He finally got his break. This book is about a section of Eric Campbell's life as a foreign correspondent spanning 7 years. These included his time in Russia, war torn regions of Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, China and also Iraq.

This book has a different tone that Sebastian Junger's writing. Well, I do not know what makes good journalistic writing. But both their styles are different. Junger's style is more immediate and direct. Eric Campbell is more modulated, so you may not get the full emotional impact. But as a collective, Campbell's writing really highlights the absurdity of what goes on in this country by his quiet honesty and fairness of describing the situation. In all his lack of melodrama, you get the full impact of what he is saying. As if speaking to genocidal leaders is what he does before breakfast. And Campell just takes it all in stride and reports. Amazing person and an amazing time. A really absurd real life story.

War

by Sebastian Junger

I have been waiting to read this for a long time. I finally got it from my sister and finished it in 2 days. Great book.

It's written in a pretty professional, journalistic sort of way, with references and fact checks etc. It is a sort of journal by Sebastian Junger during his attachment in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan with Battle Company during their deployment there.

He talks of the psychology and life of what the men go through, what life means and how they cope with all the crazy shit that goes on up there.

It is such an insightful look into all the things that happen there and what things are of value and realize what things are not important.

Also, you better understand the mechanics and motivations of the men going to war, be it agreeable or not to your beliefs, it is certainly not what I actually expected. But after reading it it made perfect sense. For instance, Junger said men on the ground did no really care for the moral implications and ideological beliefs as much as they just wanted to stay alive and do their jobs the best they can, and not let the their brothers. Everyone's lives is dependent on each other and if you screw up it really is due to the weakest link. A split second decision could be the difference between a total loss to a resounding win. And luck plays a huge part even in this day where technology is so far advanced.

As a whole, this is a great book of insight to humanize the battle and the very real, practical issued of war in Afghanistan with not much discussion behind motivation and the ideological (spread of democracy) battles. It is very humanizing look at the people on both sides and the very practical problems that they face.