The Writer's Connection, SM
a publication of The Virtual Writing Coach SM


"The Creative Process of Writing is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"

www.virtualwritingcoach.com

November, 2009

In This Issue:

1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. The Good Soldiers
4. Helpful Hints

1. Preview

The Writer's Connection explores the creative process of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and actions. We are an interactive community of authors and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge, skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre, but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.

Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing information.

Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript, and are provided to the general public. Because we are an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters with permission from Keith Barton.

2. Publisher's Note

November, 2009

Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,

This month features David Finkel's book, The Good Solders, an account of the 2 - 16 Battalion during the 2007 - 08 Surge in Iraq.

3. Finkel's The Good Soldiers

What Walter Cronkite was to WWII, David Finkel is to the Iraqi War. He is a journalist who followed the Second Battalion, 16th Infantry Division during the 2007 - 08 Surge in the village of Kamaliyah, near Baghdad. Nicknamed, The Rangers, the 300 men under the command of Colonel Kauzlarich (Col. K), endured 15 months of 115 degree temperature in their armored vehicles that ended in 14 battalion deaths and numerous more wounded minus limbs who later were sent stateside for rehabilitation at Walter Reed. The dreaded enemy (like Vietnam) was invisible: it could be a woman holding a baby, a young woman strapped with explosives under her black tunic, an old man pulling on a string that sends ten thousand nails into a Humvee pulverizing limbs in a fireball that burned soldiers beyond recognition.

The book is quite graphic in the depiction of close - arms, door - to - door search and destroy tactics. Platoons of eight soldiers are dispersed into COPS, who fight sleep, depression, and PTSD, to find the Taliban who cowardly set off IEDs (Intermittent explosive devices) and EFPs that kill, cripple, and maim U.S. nineteen and twenty - year old soldiers just out of high school. Joshua Atchley was the one who lost an eye; he later recovered at BAMC and had four fake eyes, his favorite one with the crosshairs of a sniper scope. Others lost arms, legs, ears, and other anatomical body parts who will forever be reminded of a war that was unwinnable from the start. Each chapter begins with a quote from President Bush on how we are winning the Surge, only to be reminded that the soldiers on the ground knew otherwise. Afraid to disagree even privately with the war, the 2 - 16 was like other battalions of young soldiers who believe in a cause that is compromised by social, cultural, and political ideology.

Col. K, the eternal optimist, charged up his troops with “it’s all good,” reminiscent of Robert Duvall’s famous line, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” in Coppola’s 1979 movie, Apocalypse Now, about the air assault cavalry in Vietnam. Despite Col. K’s steroid talks, his men knew the war was unwinnable, despite decreasing U.S. casualties. The Good Soldiers suffered mental disorders that the news channels do not report—in a poignant tale, one soldier kept phoning his wife in the wee hours of U.S. time thinking she was cheating on him and going berserk because she wouldn’t answer her phone. Home was a place of disaster for many soldiers (Capt. James Tezap of the Combat Stress Unit). Coming back from leave is the worse part of a deployment because you face two unknowns: your home town and family you left and the enemy on foreign soil.

In January 2007 when the Surge was announced, 83 American troops died and 647 were wounded in Iraq. In January 2008, 40 died and 234 were wounded. The Joint Chiefs crunched numbers reminiscent of the body counts in Vietnam. Despite the fact our President said we were winning the war, the 2 - 16 soldiers knew differently. They had only to look at the young faces of replacements for their buddies lucky enough to return home with missing body parts. Others went home in body bags. The tragedy of the Iraqi War, as portrayed in Finkel’s narrative is that the enemy was a pull wire that crossed a dirt road: no AK - 47 staring the soldier in the face; no tank blasting a 50 rounder at you; no infantry advancing around your flank; no helicopters blasting you with cannon fire. Our troops were literally “sitting ducks” on a pond called Kamaliyah.

As the last of the 2 - 16 were airlifted from 15 months of hell, there was no Mel Gibson ending in the Hollywood movie, We Were Soldiers. Instead, the 2 - 16 shouted in unison: “This place; the fucking dust, the fucking stink, the fucking all of it, this fucking place.” As Col. K peered out the helicopter hatch twenty yards airborne, he closed his eyes. They had won. He was sure of it. They were the difference. It was all good. But he had seen enough.” (page 273).

Helpful Hints:

1. Contrast the Vietnam and Iraqi war from a political, cultural, and economic view; was one war more winnable than another and why? Why not?

2. Combat journalists have the unique perspective of the soldier in the field as contrasted with war journalists who take “snapshots” as part of an organized tour of journalists. Can you think of other biographies told from the journalist’s POV? How do these books compare to the realism found in Finkel’s book?

3. Even Col. K’s view was skewed by his rank, even though he fought beside his men. Is this a function of his training and education (West Point)? Maturity? Chain of command? What do you think the differences are between a 38 - year old career soldier and nineteen year olds who have volunteered to fight a war for their country?


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Keith Barton, Ph.D.
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(c) Copyright 2003 A. Keith Barton, Ph.D.
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The Writer's Connection SM Mission:

The Writer's Connection SM is dedicated to helping first - time authors create their first manuscript for publication and to offer an exchange of ideas and opinions from our readers who might be interested in becoming authors.

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Archives

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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.

Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach and is accepting new clients. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing group home services to persons with mental retardation, and for the past 13 years founded and runs a clinical practice in Northwest Houston. He writes part - time with the goal of completing one novel a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate interest in helping others become attuned to their creative powers of storytelling.

Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family therapy and health psychology. He has published articles, made presentations and conducted workshops about:

Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self - esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality

Copyright by Virtual Writing Coach (SM) and Keith Barton, 2001 - 2008.