In July, WITF reporter Scott Detrow will be spending three weeks in Iraq, embedded with the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade. As part of his preparation for the trip, Scott read The Forever War, by NY Times correspondent Dexter Filkins. Â The book is a collection of gripping episodes that chronicle Filkins' work covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Â
Scott Detrow, who recently won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for the ongoing WITF series Impact of War, was so taken with the book, he convinced us to make it our WITF/Borders Pick-of-the-Month for July. Here's Scott's report on The Forever War , and there's more information on the book below.
Publisher Comments:
From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable book that captures, in stunning vignettes, snapshots, and episodes, the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time.
New York Times correspondent Dexter Filkins's work in Iraq was hailed by David Halberstam as "reporting of the highest quality imaginable." Now, through Filkins's eyes, we witness the chain of events that began with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, led to the attacks of 9/11, and culminated in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Â
Filkins's "camera" moves across a vast and various landscape of amazing characters and astonishing scenes: deserts, mountains, and streets of carnage; a public amputation performed by Taliban; the days and nights of 9/11 rescue workers. He takes us inside the homes of suicide bombers and into street-to-street combat alongside a battalion of U.S. Marines in Falluja. We meet Iraqi insurgents; an American captain who loses a quarter of his men in eight days; Ahmed Chalabi, who tricked America into war; and Ahmed Shah Masoud, the anti-Taliban rebel killed by Al Qaeda.
Â
Like no other book, The Forever War allows us a visceral understanding of the war on terror and of the experiences of the people involved, combatants and victims alike. It is a stunning debut: a brilliant, fearless book about one war and, ultimately, about all war.
... written by John Stoner , July 03, 2009, 11:08:37 AM
The supposed moral ambiguity of war is close to the surface here. That 's a trap. Is slavery ambiguous? Is torture? (Actually, yes, it becomes ambiguous when you have made war ambiguous or acceptable, as we are seeing in our country right now.) Rape? On this page you will find some moral clarity about war--a rare thing, desperately needed in our time. http://www.supportgenevaconven..._Conveners
report abuse
vote down
vote up
Votes: +0
... written by Richard Crenshaw , July 09, 2009, 09:41:38 PM
I respect the obviously strongly-held convictions of Mr. Stoner, but I don't feel that these are enough to justify his claim that he has a moral clarity lacking in those who disagree with him. Is slavery ambiguous? Is war? What about a war to end slavery? What about the use of force in any situation? Or what about the threat of force? The deeper one probes the question the more complex it becomes and a simple unambiguous answer does not seem sufficient.
Lifestyle 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
