Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

In Your Backyard

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1456679181&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=18133&RQT=309&VName=PQD

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1456679181&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=18133&RQT=309&VName=PQD


Articles about the war in Iraq are written from a variety of viewpoints ranging from those of American soldiers, Iraqi citizens, news personalities, and all other categories of people. The subjects of the articles I read could not be more different. One article focuses on a mother of an Iraqi soldier, while the other one centers on a citizen of Iraq.

“No mother ever sends an adult into battle,” states Newsweek’s article about the war. The Iraq war affects everyone, but no one is more affected than the family of a soldier. From a family member’s perspective, the cause for the war in Iraq is not worth loosing a loved one. I believe that most people in this country feel that way. According to polls within the last few years, most Americans do not approve of loosing their fellow citizens in this war.

TIME magazine focuses their article around a school-bus driver from Baghdad. This focuses more on the destruction that has taken over Iraq and it’s once beautiful cities. Hearing about the war from an Iraqi’s point of view really makes you realize how tragic the war has been. Americans are sending our families and friends away to go to war, but in Iraq the war is in everyone’s backyard. Just try and grasp how you would feel if this was the case in America.

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