Chris Hedges (along with Laila al-Arian) has a new book out, Collateral Damage, America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians. It takes the voices of soldiers and veterans of the Iraq War and tells of their experiences with American war protocol as it relates to civilians in Iraq.

Hedges has a great piece up on TomDispatch that is adapted from the introduction to his book, the piece is called “Collateral Damage : What It Really Means When America Goes to War” and is something everyone should read:

The war in Iraq is now primarily about murder. There is very little killing. The savagery and brutality of the occupation is tearing apart those who have been deployed to Iraq. As news reports have just informed us, 115 American soldiers committed suicide in 2007. This is a 13% increase in suicides over 2006. And the suicides, as they did in the Vietnam War years, will only rise as distraught veterans come home, unwrap the self-protective layers of cotton wool that keep them from feeling, and face the awful reality of what they did to innocents in Iraq.

American Marines and soldiers have become socialized to atrocity. The killing project is not described in these terms to a distant public. The politicians still speak in the abstract terms of glory, honor, and heroism, in the necessity of improving the world, in lofty phrases of political and spiritual renewal. Those who kill large numbers of people always claim it as a virtue. The campaign to rid the world of terror is expressed within the confines of this rhetoric, as if once all terrorists are destroyed evil itself will vanish. [TomDispatch]

So take some time out of your busy schedule and give a read to the entire piece- it’s informative (and not too long) and you’ll be glad you did.

takepart and do it!

And also, be sure to takepart and learn how you can take action with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Also, if you find yourself with lot’s of time, read on:

• America’s Democratic Collapse
• Waging war on Iran ‘insane’
• War and Occupation, American-Style