The Good Soldiers

I started The Good Soldiers by David Finkel earlier this week. I would read a chapter and then have to go blow my nose and wipe tears out of my eyes and that was usually enough for one day. Last night I picked it up and couldn't put it down until I finished at about 1 a.m. This is very powerful book. It is written by a reporter embedded with the 2-16 batalion in East Baghdad during "the surge," and takes place from April 2007 to March 2008. I don't believe that anyone who has not been in a situation like that can really imagine it, but this book gives you a vivid sense of the human consequences of war on soldiers. This particular war, with multiple deployments, better medical care in the field, and better armor has led to many more soldiers being saved, but many more damaged in different extreme ways, including severed limbs, closed head injuries from explosions and PTSD. I'm not sure how a human being couldn't have some PTSD after going through that. A great piece of writing.