Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

This book is John Crawford’s own true story in his words, written while stationed in Iraq as a member of Florida’s National Guard, The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell : An Accidental Soldier’s Account of the War in Iraq. I have not read the book, but listened to Terry Gross’s NPR interview with him, which is down to earth and funny in the way young Crawford offhandedly describes the bloody, stinky details of living through war time. He mentions that accessing too much phone and internet communication back home was a psychologically frustrating problem for many soldiers, that perhaps it would have been better to just disappear for a year.

And so John now appears on The Jon Stewart Show, which I unfortunately missed, but there is a clip on the Comedy Central web site.

This is an average soldier’s story, a guy who ends up in Iraq pretty much for mercenary reasons, in return for the National Guard paying his college tuition. In Iraq his buddies took steroids for combat and valium to stay cool. Kids from unpriviliged backgrounds (“I Ain’t No Fortunate Son”) who watched out for each other.

A tragic lesson learned is from the recent abduction and murder of freelance writer Steven Vincent and his Iraqi translator in Basra, Iraq. His book In The Red Zone accounts “his daring solo expeditions through post-Saddam Iraq… a vivid, frank, and unforgettable portrayal of the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people…” Going it alone at great risk, without a team, you could be attacked by any gang who doesn’t want you hanging around any more. In Steven Vincent’s blog, “In The Red Zone” his final entry, “The Niave American” and writings in the N.Y. Times pointed out corruption in Basra’s local politics.

Yeh, some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
ooh, they send you down to war, Lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give,
oh, they only answer, more, more, more, yoh,

It ain’t me, it ain’t me,
I ain’t no military son,
It ain’t me, it ain’t me,
I ain’t no fortunate one,

It ain’t me, it ain’t me,
I ain’t no fortunate one, no no no,
It ain’t me, it ain’t me,
I ain’t no fortunate son, no no no,

– John C, Fogerty