Can't Give This War Away

Book Review: Kristen Iversen's FULL BODY BURDEN: GROWING UP IN THE NUCLEAR SHADOW OF ROCKY FLATS

Full review on Amazon: Kristen Iversen's FULL BODY BURDEN: GROWING UP IN THE NUCLEAR SHADOW OF ROCKY FLATS.

As I note in my review above, the importance of a book like this might be less the story and more the information.

Just like with Iraq and Afghanistan, "we the people" have been willing to let the government's nuclear program spend trillions of dollars in our name, with surprisingly little knowledge of what that money actually bought. Do you know that we handed out $100 bills to former insurgents who fought and probably killed American soldiers? You didn't? Well - we did. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it was the deal that our government was willing to make. If you don't know about it, don't blame me, I told you. Here's another $500 million they threw down the rabbit hole.

But like I said, it's not a question of right or wrong. You want to fight a war, you're going to make some hard choices.

Book Review: David Morris' "Storm on the Horizon: Khafji - The Battle that Changed the Course of the Gulf War."

David Morris' "Storm on the Horizon: The Battle of Khafji"

I am very leery of books with titles like "the battle that changed the course blah blah blah" because so often it adds up to melodrama hyperbole for the book cover. But this time it's legit, and this battle does seem to have changed the perception of Desert Storm conflict, at the time it was being fought...even if it's mostly forgotten today.

Book Review: Paul Lockhart's "The Whites of their Eyes; Bunker Hill, the First American Army, and the Emergence of George Washington"

Paul Lockhart's "The Whites of Their Eyes"

Having lived in NH and Mass., I've driven past the Bunker Hill monument time after time. I knew some of the basics, that the battle was actually at Breeds Hill, not Bunker, but after that I had a lot of assumptions, not much knowledge.

Book Review: Tim Hetherington's "Infidel."

Tim Hetherington's "Infidel"

This book is best bought and read as a companion piece to Sebastian Junger's "War," as it features close-up personal images of many of those soldiers, as well as a few narratives by those men. I've embedded as a freelance photojournalist in Iraq, and photos like these I've tried to capture myself.

These images are uncommon and not often seen in newspapers, etc. Usually, newspapers can't focus on individual soldiers since they're trying to tell a larger story, but Hetherington has the space to present them here. I think readers will appreciate how soldiers look at war - when they aren't hidden under 50 pounds of gear, helmets and sunglasses. Here you can see the men as they look in 'real' life.

By itself, I think this book might be seen as somewhat narrow. A reader might skim through it, appreciate it, but because it's mostly visual, there's nowhere else to go with it. But in combination with "Restrepo," which Hetherington co-directed, and the book "War," I think a reader will see the full picture - through these still images, written words, and film.

Of course, this work now stands as a memorial to Hetherington, who never appears in any of the images himself. Killed in Libya, this will be his last book. He risked his life to get these photos, in a dangerous place that he certainly didn't have to go.

When I bought the book, I skimmed it, said to myself 'wow, good job,' then put it on a shelf and forgot about it until today. I think new and future readers will appreciate the images even more, because now they'll know what it sometimes costs to accomplish work like this - both by the men in front of the camera, and Hetherington behind it.

Can't Give This War Away - Poetry and War: An Introduction

This is the full introduction to "Can't Give This War Away: Three Iraqi Summers of Change and Conflict." Preview (and purchase) the whole book here.

Can't Give This War Away: Three Iraqi Summers of Change and Conflict

Poetry and War: An Introduction:

 

"Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things." - Robert Frost

"Any idiot can face a crisis. It's this day-to-day living that wears you out." - Anton Chekov

New Hampshire poet Robert Frost’s quote compared his profession to baseball games - the dramatic moments need patience between long intervals. His observation - whether he’d appreciate it or not - applies to war and poetry equally as well.

The intervals are the tough things; the day-to-day living is what wears one out, as a soldier overseas and far from home. Not the moment; moments require action, and action needs training and good training took passion. Of course a soldier can face the moment. That’s why they’re there. But they can’t train for a war’s interval. They can fill it up - burn the latrine’s shit barrel, clean weapons, shave so they don’t get yelled at - but it’s all just time killing until what they’re really there to do finally comes along.