1A Study Questions for “Military Blog” (21-28)

1.    What are the blogger’s deepest fears about the U.S. military presence in Iraq?
2.    What American dilemma do we see in the first paragraph? Winning is losing. It’s a lose-lose situation. There was no post-war plan so in effect the war has never stopped.
3.    What moral dilemma does the blogger describe in the second paragraph? He’s in effect warring on civilians. See pages 26 and 27 in which his major and other American soldiers hate all Iraqis.
4.    What does the blogger mean in paragraph 3 when he calls humanity an “oxymoron”?
5.    What is the futility, both in Iraq and as history shows us, of urban warfare? See the humanitarian crisis described on page 24. Consider how the “monsters” can’t be identified until it’s too late on page 26. Children are killed during raids, human shields, etc.
6.    What extremes of human reaction does the blogger describe on page 23?
7.    Based on the traumas described, what kind of psychological and psychiatric crises will affect the soldiers if and when they return to the United States? Are there appropriate treatments and accommodations for them? Consider the nightmares described on page 25. (research paper topic)
8.    Describe the blogger’s empathy on page 25. He does not blame the Iraqis for hating him for he would hate also if the situation were reversed.
9.    What evidence is there that war atrocities, mindlessly killing civilians, has become a daily part of the American presence in Iraq? See page 27.
10.    How does the blogger suggest that American civilians, living in their relative comfort, are too willfully ignorant and too self-absorbed to care about America’s catastrophe in Iraq? See page 27.
11.    How do the soldiers transform into misfits on page 27?
12.    What is the struggle and responsibility of an American soldier? See page 28.