From Baghdad With Love by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman 1st Edition
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From Publishers Weekly
The news from Iraq keeps getting grimmer, but Iraq veteran Kopelman and journalist Roth (The Man Who Talks to Dogs) tell a tale of radiant joy about Kopelman's efforts to safely transport Lava, the stray dog his Marine unit found in the wreckage of Fallujah, back to the U.S. Though the premise sounds cloying, Kopelman and Roth eschew sentimentality. They don't hesitate to detail the corruption of the Coalition Provisional Authority and the U.S. military bureaucracy or the extreme hardships of the Iraqi people. Kopelman's nagging qualms about keeping the dog in violation of military orders throw into relief his efforts to repress his guilt over working so hard to save a dog amid so much human suffering. Most bracing are the frank descriptions of the war's moral vacuum, where terrified men and women—like the dogs that Iraqi insurgents strap with bombs and send charging into the enemy—are driven to commit unspeakable acts they cannot possibly understand. The story of Lava's journey out of Iraq is exciting, but it's to Kopelman and Roth's credit that it's not nearly as harrowing as the story of what the dog left behind. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Oct.)
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From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
War turns decent men into unflinching killers and compassion into a liability. So when Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, a Marine in a hellish corner of Iraq, decided to adopt an abandoned puppy, he was breaking every rule in the book.
The pair met after a Marine patrol checked out an empty house in Fallujah and found not an insurgent but a helpless mutt. Back at the command post, Kopelman fell for the pup, now named Lava. In his year-long mission to spirit the dog to America, Kopelman encountered a thicket of military and logistical obstacles. But an array of conspirators, from veterinarians to journalists, helped deliver Lava to safety.
Kopelman's tale is not just a seasonal heart-warmer. It is a provocative examination of an issue that resonates deeply in the wake of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay: Do "softer" values, such as mercy for the weak, sabotage military morale or strengthen it?
At Kopelman and Lava's first meeting, the exhausted, trigger-happy Marine glimpsed a ball of fur and instinctively reached for his rifle. But soon Lava won over his unit, reducing "elite, well-oiled machines of war" to baby talk. This was strictly verboten. Their job, Kopelman writes, was to "shoot the enemy, period, and if anything close to compassion rears its ugly head, you better shoot that down, too." But Kopelman and his battle-mates could not bear to kill the puppy or abandon him in a place where dogs survive by gnawing at corpses. Instead, they began plotting Lava's escape -- and found a bit of salvation in a soul-numbing war.
Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.
