The Pain of War in Black and White

Oct. 8, 2006 — -- Much of what Americans learn about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is filtered by the press, the politicians and the Pentagon brass.

A new book seeks to offer another point of view.

"Operation Homecoming" compiles the letters, journals, emails, short stories and poems of soldiers. The writings in it are raw, graphic and sometimes highly critical of the government, even though the government is putting out the book.

After months of watching his friends die in al Anbar province, Iraq, Army Sgt. John McCary fired off an anguished e-mail.

"I'm ok, mom. I'm just a little… shaken, a little sad," he wrote. "I know this isn't any divine mission. No God, Allah, Jesus, Buddha or other divinity ever decreed, 'Go get your body ripped to shreds, it's for the better.' "

The consequences of war bubbled up doubt in McCary.

"What do you say to your men," he wrote, "after you've scraped up the scalps of an entire Iraqi family off the road, right next to the shattered bodies of your soldiers, held together only by their shoelaces, body armor or helmets? 'We're fighting the good fight?' I don't think so."

Air Force Capt. Ed Hrivnak, who helped medevac injured troops out of Iraq, wrote about caring for a young soldier.

"He looks at me and our eyes are locked. His eyes say, 'Tell me I'm going to be okay. Tell me that I'm going to be fine, tell me that I'm going to be whole again,' " he wrote. "I'm sure less than two seconds passed before I gave him a big smile and a thumbs-up. Those two seconds felt like an hour. He broke into a big smile of relief and I felt broken for lying to him."

Staff Sgt. Jack Lewis, an Army reservist, described the aftermath of a traffic accident. An Army vehicle hit an Iraqi civilian car, killing a young man. Lewis looked after the victim's wailing father.

"It's hard to describe what we found in the car," he wrote. "It had been a young man only moments earlier that night. … It was as bad a mess as I've seen."