Starting a couple of weeks ago, I began to see people in London wearing artificial red poppies similar to the ones pictured here. I had no idea what they symbolized. I eventually learned they were for Remembrance Day otherwise known as Veteran’s Day in the U.S.

Ilona Meagher of PTSD Combat (who I featured earlier this year at Genetics and Health) wrote me today to share her book review of
What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It by Trisha Wood.

In What Was Asked of Us, author and award-winning investigative reporter Trish Wood lets 29 young men and women who fought in and returned from the Iraq War speak without anyone spinning, packaging, cherry-picking, or pre-digesting their words. Some of the voices are convinced of America’s rightness to be in Iraq; others are less sure. Some are angry; some feel guilt. And chillingly, others admit to missing the adrenaline rush of the fire fights, the “fun” of posing dead bodies for photographs–and even the killing.

I want to read more but a part of me would rather stick my head under the warm blankets. Not everyone has the luxury of doing so. The rest of us should at least have the courtesy of listening to those who’ve been involved in the messier, more brutal side of human life.

NB: Ilona has her own book coming out next year - Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America’s Returning Troops.

Photo credit: gnb

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