by Johnny Walker (alias) and Jim DeFelice
Hennepin County Library hardcover 277 pages
genre: non-fiction memoir, war stories
This was definitely not my kind of book. The war, killing, machismo, etc. just turns me off. The cultural differences between what he described about living in Iraq as a child (not to mention later during the war) and what is familiar to me are stunningly different. My notion of honor and the Iraqi notion of honor are radically different. Reading about Chris Kyle (and the recent Jesse Ventura lawsuit) makes me more curious about this man and his American Sniper book . . . though I still don't like war books.
Soheila and their kids coming to America - it would be interesting to hear their perspective on the difference between life in Iraq during war and life here. This book was very, very positive toward the SEALs. There were lots of different missions and it all seemed to blur together - both for the audience of this book and for the protagonist himself. DeFelice's author note at the end talked about this difficulty of remembered how things happened.
Iraq seems to be a very messed-up country. The destruction and corruption are so devastating! How can people have hope to see better days when there are so many factors conspiring against them? The Shia and Sunni . . . even though he explained them pretty carefully, it still doesn't make much sense to me. Why are these people so busy hating one another and trying to exterminate the others? When he talked about informants giving bad "intel" to cause their neighbors / enemies pain and distress, all I could think of was how messed up that is. So if I get mad at one of my neighbors, I can call the police, lie and say they are terrorists, and watch as their house gets torn up and they are terrified by men storming their home with guns? Not okay.
The author's emphasis was continually on building up instead of tearing down, but I don't think anyone in Iraq is listening to him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment