Synopses & Reviews
Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges and journalist Laila Al-Arian spent several months interviewing Iraqi war veterans to expose the patterns of the occupation and how it affects Iraqi civilians. The testimonies of these soldiers and marines provide a disturbing window into the indiscriminate killing of unarmed and innocent Iraqis that is carried out daily by the occupation forces.
Collateral Damage is organized around key military operations on the battlefield—convoys, checkpoints, detentions, raids, suppressive fire, and "hearts and minds." Hedges and Al-Arian uncover how the very conduct of the war and occupation have turned the American forces into agents of terror for most Iraqis. The military convoys that speed through the centers of towns, often driving on the wrong side of the street or on sidewalks, have become trains of death. Soldiers fire upon Iraqi vehicles with impunity at checkpoints; pregnant women being rushed to the hospital have been killed at roadblocks when their husbands failed to slow down, and children have watched in horror as their parents have been killed.
Hedges and Al-Arian show how this widespread pattern of civilian killing has fueled the insurgency in Iraq, giving rise to instability, sectarian violence, and total chaos.
Review
"Narrator Lloyd James...delivers a respectful and ultimately powerful reading." ---AudioFile
Synopsis
Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges and journalist Laila Al-Arian paint a disturbing picture of how the indiscriminate killing of unarmed and innocent Iraqi citizens by American occupation forces is fueling the insurgency in Iraq.
About the Author
Chris Hedges, a staff member of the New York Times since 1990, has been a foreign correspondent for fifteen years. An adjunct professor of journalism at New York University, he is the author of Losing Moses on the Freeway and What Every Person Should Know About War. Chris was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the New York Times's coverage of global terrorism. A senior fellow at the Nation Institute, he lives in New Jersey. Laila Al-Arian is a freelance journalist living in New York. A graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, she has interned for USA Today and Nation magazine and has written for the United Press International, the Dupont Current newspaper, and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Lloyd James has been narrating since 1996, has recorded over six hundred books in almost every genre, has earned six AudioFile Earphones Awards, and is a two-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award. His bestselling and most critically acclaimed performances include Elvis in the Morning by William F. Buckley, Jr., Ben Hur by Lew Wallace, Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitskin, and Mystic Warrior by Tracy and Laura Hickman. Lloyd's background as a performer includes extensive work in classical theater and folk music. He lives in Maryland with his wife and children.