US Soldiers speak .

March 30, 2007 4:04 PM

Voices of the Fallen: the war in the words of the dead-- In letters and journals and e-mails, the war dead live on, their words—urgent, honest, unself-conscious—testament to the realities of combat. What do they have to say to us? ... The result is a window on Iraq we have not had before: the bravery, the fear and the chaos of war, and the loves and hates and dreams and nightmares of the warriors. Things are incredibly busy, then they are not. The Iraqis are welcoming, then they are not. The war is going well, then it is not. The mission makes sense, then it does not. ... (video, audio, email, and text)
posted by amberglow (14 comments total)

‘If You’re Reading This …’--Combat troops live every day with the specter of their mortality. Usually, they ignore it and do their jobs. But at some point, heading for a war zone or shaken by a close call, many of them write letters to be read only if they don’t make it home alive. They want to convey the things that matter to the people they love most, putting their hopes and thanks and blessings on paper. Each of the letters on the following pages was left behind by an American who gave his life in Iraq. (these all made me cry immediately--pdfs)
posted by amberglow at 4:13 PM on March 30, 2007

and i'm glad this is included: A Day of Death--
For every soldier or Marine who dies in Iraq, at least 20 Iraqis are killed. Some of their stories.
posted by amberglow at 4:24 PM on March 30, 2007

Last Letters Home -- "Newsweek magazine publishes some of the last letters home from soldiers killed in Iraq. We speak to Dan Ephron, Deputy Washington bureau chief, of Newsweek." -- interview on Boston NPR station WBUR this morning [requires RealPlayer]
posted by ericb at 4:35 PM on March 30, 2007

'Dad, we've taken the fight to them. If we don't fight them here, we will fight them on the streets of America. They proved that at 9/11. We don't want IEDs and suicide bombers on the streets of America.'
posted by Flashman at 4:37 PM on March 30, 2007

Actually we seem to hear quite a lot from the soldiers. What about the Iraqis?
posted by Artw at 4:57 PM on March 30, 2007

Actually we seem to hear quite a lot from the soldiers. What about the Iraqis?
Well, we won't ever hear any more from these folks, and i'm glad their families participated.

For living Iraqis, i've been following this McClatchy Iraqi Bureau employees' blog: Inside Iraq. Hopefully others can recommend more here, so this can be full of all voices.
posted by amberglow at 5:54 PM on March 30, 2007

and Baghdad Burning, but it's sporadic.
posted by amberglow at 6:01 PM on March 30, 2007

How the U.S. Army broke in Iraq.
posted by homunculus at 7:22 PM on March 30, 2007

Tillman case memo fuels cover-up theory
posted by homunculus at 10:54 PM on March 30, 2007

Newsweek's "Voices Of The Fallen" A Blip In The Blogosphere--... Yet, they gave this issue a miss.
Is it Iraq fatigue? Is it the absence of a political slant either way? ...
posted by amberglow at 7:17 AM on March 31, 2007

... One of the primary ways in which evil advances is by means of people's refusal to see the connection between their actions and their ultimate results. As I have often pointed out, those results are felt by specific, individual human beings. These are not finally abstract questions of "policy" or of intentionally unenforceable "timetables": these are people's lives -- and people's deaths. ...
posted by amberglow at 7:20 AM on March 31, 2007

The U.S. military death toll in March, the first full month of the security crackdown, was nearly twice that of the Iraqi army, which American and Iraqi officials say is taking the leading role in the latest attempt to curb violence in the capital, surrounding cities and Anbar province, according to figures compiled on Saturday. ...
posted by amberglow at 9:03 PM on March 31, 2007

For just the second time since the war began, the Army is sending large units back to Iraq without giving them at least a year at home, defense officials said Monday. The move signaled how stretched the U.S. fighting force has become. ...
posted by amberglow at 4:16 PM on April 3, 2007

...the number of American service men and women killed in Iraq during the last six months, November 1, 2006 through March 31, 2007, was the highest in any six-month stretch of the entire war: 532. (The six-month period ending January 31, 2005, is next closest, with 526.) The past three months are also the only three consecutive months with 80 or more fatalities.

The war is getting worse, not better. ...
posted by amberglow at 6:45 PM on April 3, 2007