War's foggy truth

Books reveal troops' valor, depravity in turmoil of Iraq

Karen Algeo Krizman, Special To The Rocky

Published March 30, 2007 at midnight

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In December 2003, Private Joshua Key was scheduled to return to his Army platoon in Iraq after a two-week leave. Instead, disgusted and disillusioned by his mission there, he went AWOL.

Four months later, an American patrol was pinned down during a surprise attack that marked the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency. Convinced the mission in Iraq was justified and necessary, it stood its ground.

Two entirely different stories, yet both illustrate the brutality, psychological strain and moral divisions of war. Just as Key believes he was right in walking away, the soldiers in Martha Raddatz's Long Journey Home believed they were right to stay and fight.

This month, as both books are released, one can only marvel at the difference. If we didn't already find ourselves ambivalent about the war, these titles prove that the fog of war is more than a military term, it's a literary one as well. It seems there are as many sides to this war as there are soldiers who fight it.

Key's story, as told to Candadian journalist Lawrence Hill in The Deserter's Tale, is a crude depiction of how a poor, patriotic Oklahoman lost faith in his country.

At 23, Key was married with two children and one on the way. With just a high school diploma and a job delivering pizzas, you can't blame him for buying into the Army's promise of a steady income, health-care benefits and an education - what he now calls the "poverty draft."

Key admits he believed the recruiter who promised he wouldn't have to go overseas or into combat if he joined the Army - mere months after 9/11. Couple this naivete with the steady dose of racism Key says the Army fed recruits and it's no wonder that abuses such as Abu Ghraib occur.

"Our commanders told us that people who were not Americans were 'terrorists' and 'slant eyes,' " he writes. "Iraqis, I was taught to believe, were not civilians and they were not even people."

Once in Iraq, Key says he and his platoon from Fort Carson's 43rd Combat Engineer Company raided and pillaged countless houses in search of terrorists, beat civilians, and stole their belongings. He recalls witnessing American troops playing a twisted game of soccer with the skulls of dismembered Iraqis, and says members of his squadron blew up a girl's head "like a mushroom" as she approached him - just as she did each day as he stood guard - to request food.

Key isn't proud of his actions. "I never once saw an Iraqi civilian threaten or harm an American soldier," he says. But he continued brutalizing Iraqis until, he says, "a sick realization lodged like cancer in my gut. It grew, and festered, and troubled me more with every passing day. We, the Americans, had become the terrorists in Iraq."

Key comes across as dense at times, and Hill's writing is far from prosaic. But as the story proceeds, the soldier evolves from a gullible, gung-ho follower to a thoughtful and insightful leader who isn't afraid to stand up for what he believes is morally right.

While The Deserter's Tale can be rough in spots, The Long Journey Home is spit-and-polish perfect - 180 degrees opposite of Key's bleak tale. ABC News correspondent Raddatz paints a picture of American valor and unflagging commitment.

Raddatz painstakingly re-creates 48 hours in April 2004 when a patrol from Fort Hood's 1st Cavalry Division was pinned down in an Iraqi alley by thousands of armed militia and civilians. As fellow soldiers came to its rescue in unarmored open trucks, they were savagely gunned down.

"The men in the truck were defenseless," Raddatz writes. "Sixteen men totally exposed in an old bucket of a truck were being shot to pieces, one by one . . . The back of the (truck) was now littered with shell casings and filling with blood. The water bottles and brown plastic MRE packages were streaked red. The smell of blood and burned flesh mingled with the acrid stench of gunpowder and explosives."

When the fighting finally stopped, eight Americans were dead and more than 70 wounded. Raddatz smoothly blends the many richly drawn characters and story lines here into one slick package reminiscent of Black Hawk Down. Yet the portrait she paints of Iraqi civilians is a far cry from those in The Deserter's Tale.

"(The sergeant) heard the voice of a child," Raddatz writes. "He looked down to see a boy of about eight running alongside the truck, holding a Coke can in his hand. 'Mister! Mister!' he shouted. In a horrifying second, the boy hurled the can at the soldiers in the truck and then ducked. An explosion rocked the truck . . . A homemade bomb. The boy continued to chase the truck. Two soldiers, picking themselves up off the truck bed, lowered their rifles at the boy and - fearing another bomb - shot him."

It's not a question of who's right or wrong here, but instead how one war can spawn such diametrically points of view. No doubt both views are true, in measures only those serving can judge.

One thing is certain: These participants won't be the last to share differing stories as the war rages on.

The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away From the War in Iraq

• By Joshua Key, as told to Lawrence Hill. Atlantic Monthly Press, 240 pages, $23.

• Grade: B-

The Long Road Home

• By Martha Kaddatz. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 320 pages, $24.95.

• Grade: A

Karen Algeo Krizman is a Littleton freelance writer.

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