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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, page 63 Waging Peace Collateral Damage Authors at DC’s Busboys and Poets
PULITZER Prize-winning free-lance journalist Chris Hedges, co-author Laila Al-Arian and Iraq war veteran Geoff Millard held a jam-packed book signing at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC on June 19. Hedges began by giving a good plug for Busboys and Poets. He is a lover of books, he said, who has never bought a TV. This vibrant bookstore is one of the few independent bookstores left in the nation’s capital, he pointed out, as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com seek to kill off competitors like Olsson’s and even Borders Books. “I don’t want the owners of Walmart to choose my books,” Hedges said. Busboy’s owner Andy Shallal has successfully blended activism, good food, speakers and books to attract an enthusiastic clientele. Hedges explained why he and Al-Arian wrote Collateral Damage. After 20 years covering wars abroad, losing colleagues, and facing debilitating PTSD himself, Hedges said he wanted to write about the patterns and poisons of war and tell readers deeply disturbing narratives that are not disseminated in the mainstream press. Al-Arian and Hedges spent seven months finding U.S. veterans of the Iraq war with the physical and moral courage to stand up and tell the truth about the war. Al-Arian went to pro- and anti-war veterans groups and interviewed 50 veterans. Together they put together a these soldiers’ narratives in gut-wrenching detail (see book review p. 68). —Delinda C. Hanley |
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