Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Laila Al-Arian (Author)
Key Phrases: Sergeant Flanders, Sergeant Westphal, Sergeant Bruhns (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pulitzer Prize–winner Hedges (War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning) collaborates with journalist Al-Arian in this slight polemic that investigates the suffering of Iraqi civilians at the hands of American troops. With the help of groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, the authors identify and interview 50 combat veterans—their methodology, however, is noticeably flawed: their sample is too small and their selection process is skewed toward critics of the war. Interviewees like Sgt. Camilo Majia, who was court-martialed for desertion and given a bad-conduct discharge, are allowed to relate not only eye-witness but also secondhand accounts. Broad allegations implying that most troops are complicit in murdering unarmed Iraqis or that it is standard practice to plant weapons on murdered civilians go unchallenged, while the authors point to a culture of terror and hatred among U.S. forces for whom abusing civilians has become a kind of perverted sport. However admirable the authors' aims, their selective and biased interpretation of events might disappoint readers looking for a more objective analysis. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and journalist Laila Al-Arian spent the past year interviewing over fifty veterans to expose the patterns of the occupation in Iraq. The testimonies of these soldiers—many of who remain deeply traumatized by their experiences—uncover how the very conduct of the war and occupation have turned the American forces into agents of terror for most Iraqis.

Collateral Damage is organized around key military operations—Convoys, Checkpoints, Detentions, Raids, Suppressive Fire, and “Hearts and Minds.” Military convoys traveling at tremendous speeds through towns have become trains of death. Civilians are routinely run over or shot to death. Soldiers fire upon Iraqi vehicles with impunity at checkpoints. Late-night detentions based on shoddy intelligence terrify women, traumatize children, and radicalize the young men caught in their dragnet.

These soldiers have found the moral courage to speak out about the true nature of a war that has become one long, unchecked atrocity, and has given rise to the instability, sectarian violence and chaos that we witness today in Iraq.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (June 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568583737
• ISBN-13: 978-1568583730
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #524,272 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poweful and insightful., June 26, 2008

By	J. Smith "rabies1" (Hingham, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book divided into 4 parts, (checkpoints, raids, convoys and detentions) gives you a daily life front row seat for what it's really like in Iraq. I kept lowering the book and saying to myself "We'll never be able to make it up to them. NEVER". (Soldiers and civilians). Can you imagine being innocent and no one understands what you're saying? Not able to stop the car at a check point because the brakes don't work? Having your dog shot in front of you? Having your friends killed because they couldn't avoid a convoy? This book gives you many accounts on what it's really like over there. I highly recommend it.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows the reader mentally, emotionally and physically the pathology of war., June 23, 2008

By	Ken "KLS" (USA) - See all my reviews

This book really shows how true evil masks itself behind such high sounding words as `honor,' `glory,' `dignity', `patriotism', `for god and country', 'victory', and so on; words that may have inspired a young man or woman to join the military (although many others may do so for other reasons such as economic necessity) only for many of them to later find that they have been duped and diabolically deceived by those so called `responsible' politicians who had sent them over there along with those other cowardly politicians who only pretend that they want them to come back home.

It's only too late when these young soldiers realize that they are simply the tools of a greedy power elite who only seek profit from human butchery, slaughter and misery and these people could care less about the Iraqi people or for that matter, they could care less about the American soldiers who are used as sacrificial cannon fodder to serve some sick pathological agenda to `occupy' (read: conquer and rape) another culture. In fact, it's even beyond sick as to what goes on in Iraq. It's just plain evil.

By reading the personal testimonial accounts of those soldiers who have been deeply traumatized from their experiences in Iraq, this book really gives the reader a feel for the reality of the horrors of war. The accounts given by the soldiers regarding their experiences traveling in the moving convoys is simply horrific and it's clearly a living nightmarish hell for not only the unfortunate innocent Iraqi's who are butchered from these convoys but for the American soldiers themselves who actually think that they are fighting for some greater `cause.' Any politician that can read about the things that go on over in Iraq and not be so deeply affected as to immediately put an end to this campaign of terror is simply not human.

This is an excellent book and it does what it's supposed to do, which is to bring awareness to the reader; mentally, emotionally and physically, of the pathology of war.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Citizens in the Middle, June 15, 2008

By	W. Fargo "avid reader" (NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book focuses on the damage done to the Iraqi citizenry by the fighting in Iraq. The suffering of Iraqis is made plain. It has it's slow points but the book ultimately succeeds by effectively describing the horror of war and the plight of innocents who find themselves trapped in it.