The good soldiers, author: David Finkel — winner of Pulitzer Prize

Ok, to read about war was always one of my favorite topics in the past ten years, or better the insides of a war, what it does to to the people, and maybe how to avoid it, if possible. I know what the war did to my country (deservedly so) but the kids growing up in a country after the war do not deserve so. But this is called fate. To me, somehow, it has been an education and I am quite a different person than I would have been without this experience. Basic examples are that I eat what there is on the plate; have learned to be resourceful — if something not available you find something else to substitute it; be flexible and learn how to fix things with very little resources. Enough of this, it sounds like self-praise, but I mean this whole new generation who grew up with absolutely nothing somehow gained in the long run. So I tend to read stories of wars, of unfortunate people, how bad is bad, and how one can make the best with nearly nothing.  By the way, my first impression of meeting as a kid American soldiers after the war was just warm and fuzzy; they handed you candies! They handed you the first chewing gum! They were kind and helpful! They sent CARE packages that contained coffee that produced an exciting smell ‑ a smell that I was completely unfamiliar with! Or I received a brown  dress with ruffles (too big but oh so pretty)! I thought. 

I picked this book to read more about the war in Iraq, mainly about the soldiers and their lives and what one might not read in the daily papers: the maiming of Iraqis, the “surge” and hopelessness. Each chapter carries a headline of one of Busch’s conciliatory remarks about winning the surge to be followed by the “real” story. Sneaking in is the slow doubt in the soldiers’ realization that what they are doing might not be the right thing to do. The leader of this battalion is Colonel K — a “believer” to the out side world and a serious doubter inside. Colonel K was educated at West Point; the soldiers came from various ways of life and had picked the Army as an escape to find a way out from their present situation. Entering and signing up, nobody seriously thought of ever dying or to get terribly injured. The average age is 20-25 years. A good part of the soldiers end up with no arms, or no legs, or no legs and arms, or blind, or horribly depressed. I feel everyone should read this book, regardless of whether you're for or you are ambivalent about the war in Iraq, or for that matter: any war!  It’s just a very harrowing chronicle of modern combat based on the eight months the author had spent with an Army battalion in Iraq.