Iraq War Vets Sought For New Book

The co-owner of Global Security Press is soliciting “letters, emails, blog excerpts, and other forms of communication from military personnel who have deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom,” for an upcoming book.

His full message, and the email address to use, is:

Global Security Press is supporting the publication of a new book, "Outside The Wire: True Stories of American Soldiers in Iraq." This volume will contain letters, emails, blog excerpts, and other forms of communication from military personnel who have deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Eligible contributors include active duty Army, National Guard and Reservists.

We are looking for heartwarming stories about American soldiers who did "good" things while in theater. Civil Affairs related missions are of particular interest. If you helped save children, build schools, feed the hungry, secure villages, turn on electricity, then we want to know about it.
Interested military personnel should send an email to jclark@bootsontheground.org. Please include in an email or cover letter your full legal name, rank and grade, permanent mailing address, dates of service, location of service, the type of communications (emails, letters, blog excerpts) proposed for the collection, and the submissions, of no more than fifty pages. There are no restrictions on the form of the written material - poetry, personal letters, war diaries, or journals. Do not send classified material. Photographs are welcome.

Here's James Clark's impressive bio.

Another indicator that veterans of Iraq won’t be treated as Vietnam vets were comes from, of all places, the alumni magazine of the very liberal college I graduated from in 1968, before enlisting in the USMC for Vietnam.

When I attended, the protest du jour on the green was the common sight. To my shock and delight, I opened the CUNY Brooklyn College alumni magazine to see photos of Army reservists now drilling there. Last time I was there, in 1969, in uniform, I had to scare off some protestors who tried to block my way, by issuing the trademarked Marine growl. It worked on these punk defenders of Ho.

In the alumni magazine, the coordinator of Veterans Affairs for the college speaks of her present constituency, that “academically, veterans do better than average.” (This is similar to the record of Vietnam veterans that was hidden by MSM falsehoods.)

In my surprise, I emailed a friend who is assistant professor of history at Brooklyn College, who is preparing an oral history book on Vietnam veterans from NYC, which is how we first met. I would characterize him as a common-sense liberal who has tried to follow the facts. His discovery “belies the stereotype…image of Vietnam veterans as dysfunctional in some way.” They are more than average contributors back to their communities. “They feel that they are obligated to give back to society.”

He emailed me back: “I do think we are trying to treat our vets better this time around.”

He added, about meeting with a bunch of 6th Marines during Memorial Day weekend’s Fleet Week in NY:

While there was some political division among them…they uniformly believe that the U.S. troops over there are doing good things. They spoke of building hospitals and schools, and bringing stability to the area. And, interestingly, not one of them had anything bad to say about the Iraqis they met. These guys are going back to Ramadi in March, and I hope to go down to Camp Lejeune to see them before they go. Iraqi vets are my next project.

Even most of the many putzes who haven’t grown out of their ‘60’s youthful protest memories, and those who today profit from the efforts John Kerry has spawned to defend his fact-punctured self-inflation, now demur from the extent of their prior demonization of Vietnam veterans. But, their focus on the extremely few over-the-line charges – still to be decided by U.S. rules of evidence -- brought against U.S. soldiers and Marines belies their continuing agenda of undermining U.S. resolve now as then, regardless of justice to our servicemen and women.

With the efforts like the above, they won’t succeed in tarring Iraq and Afghan war vets as they did Vietnam vets.