Jim’s Comments (group member since Mar 27, 2011)

Jim’s comments from the Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent Into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death Reading Group group.

Terri wrote: "RE: photos
That is odd. I know that some editions of books can come out without photos. A friend who read Generation Kill by Evan Wright hadn't any photos in their copy while I did. And Tasha had t..."

Terri: That is all really interesting about the photos. I always thought that the UK edition and the Commonwealth edition were the same. I will have to ask my publisher about that. I don't own all the rights to all of the photos in the book, but I may be able to put the ones I do own in a photo gallery online somewhere soon. Let me see if I can dig them up.

About Watt, the whistleblower: Absolutely he did the right thing. Without question. And he is one of the soldiers I speak with the most to this day. He is a really great guy. I think while he was in country still, the amount of support really varied from soldier to soldier. I think everybody in C Company, from what I am told, also supported him, and these days even among 1st Platoon and all of Bravo company, especially with the healing hindsight of time, it is hard to find a soldier who will claim he did the wrong thing.

Funny you would mention both Lauzier and Watt in the same post because Lauzier is probably the other soldier I speak to them most these days. He is getting on with his life, of course, but I do think the event of that summer do weigh heavy on him to this day.

Terri wrote: "Re: my last post I said I couldn't recall the soldiers name. The one that came forward.

The name just came to me. Watt. ;-) Watt was the whistle blower.
Phew, thank goodness for that. He did a mi..."

Hi Terri. I will be traveling most of today so I probably won't be able to post, and not nearly to the degree your questions/comments deserve, but I will be sure to do so on Tuesday.

Terri wrote: "Had a quick look at your Black Hearts facebook page. The photos that you have on there? Are they the photos from the book? And are they the only photos in the book?

I was extremely disappointed t..."

Hi Terri. The photos on the Facebook page are not the photos from the book. Some of the soldiers have uploaded their own photos. But if you have the UK edition, your copy should absolutely positively have the photos. There is about an 8 page glossy color insert in the middle of the book with a lot of snapshots of the soldiers who appear in the book. I had several copies of the UK edition sent to me, so I know they are in there. Is it at all possible you have missed them, or maybe you have a bootleg copy, or they were cut out? I don't know about the UK Kindle edition but I do know that the US Kindle edition the photos are in there, too, even if they are very very hard to find.

Yes, while I was in Iraq, I would say that I had a lot of time to speak to a lot of Iraqis while I was there. Not so much in the Triangle of Death--during that time it was too dangerous to travel there without the Army, and the time you spend talking to Iraqis when you are embedded is not as great as most journalists would like. But I spent a fair amount of time at TIME's bureau in Baghdad, which was located in the Red Zone and I spoke to many Baghdad residents at great length.

Their feelings informed much of my impressions of their impressions that I describe in the book. To say that they were weary of the occupation and all the chaos that the invasion brought would be an understatement. I think this is hard for Americans to hear, but I do think that overall--and of course opinions vary and it is hard to generalize across a whole country--most of the Iraqis I spoke to, if given a choice, would take Saddam back, even the Shi'ites, because I think they would say that oppressed stability is preferrable to "liberated" chaos and lawlessness.

Oddly, and again it varied person to person, but most of the Iraqis I spoke to really at that point just wanted the Americans to leave, even if they acknowledged that that might lead to, yes, even more chaos. And, without question, Iraq was a much safer place in 2008 than 2006, and it is hard to argue that the US military did not have a lot to do with that turnaround. So, to say it was a complicated situation would be an understatement.

Terri wrote: "Oh, and I also had an obscure question. The soldier that burned his face off with the JP-8 fuel? You never said whether he got the wrong fuel by accident, or he used it on purpose.
As I said, ob..."

It was definitely an accident. The soldier would not have used JP-8 on purpose. But there is some lingering controversy about whether this soldier just stupidly picked up the wrong can (which should have been prominently labeled as JP-8 and even a different color from the diesel cans) or whether the cans themselves were mislabeled. I have never been able to sort out definitely which one it was.

Terri wrote: "Hi again Jim and thank you for chatting with us. :)

I did see, in Black Hearts, that you rated Achilles In Vietnam : Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character highly. Unfortunately, ..."

Hi Teri. Thanks for your note, and for reading the book. And no worries about relying on the library! I'd rather be read than not read.

As to your questions about understanding of Iraqi culture and traditions, I would say that it is all over the map and almost varies soldier to soldier. And I was embedded in 2008, so I think even then the level of cultural understanding was higher than it was even two years previous. Some soldiers had pretty good Arabic and were interested in learning and respecting the locals' views. Other soldiers were pretty hardened and bitter and just didn't have any interest in knowing anything about Iraqis whatsoever. It really depended.

Oh, I should add that there is a Facebook page about the book that I created, but a lot of the men who appear in the book are there and hang out there from time to time.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid...

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi Jim, thanks for taking the time to reply to our questions, I'm sure there will be more to follow:)

Your book highlighted some issues that are not always mentioned, for instance, the suicide o..."

Hi again, Aussie Rick. I am happy to take questions for as long as anybody is interested in asking them. I cannot guarantee I will be able to respond in 24 hours or less, but I'll do my best to try.

Your first questions on staying in touch with the soldiers in the book: Yes, I am in touch with a lot of them. I'd say I have been in touch one way or another with pretty much everyone I interviewed, if only for them to give me their feedback, or to say thanks, or for me to try to send them a book. Then, I would say there are about 20 or 30 soldiers that one way or another I talk to or Facebook with or email every few months. We just check in on each other, see how they are doing and whatnot. And finally, there are about five or six soldiers that I speak to maybe every couple of weeks.

How are they doing? I would say it varies very very widely. Most of them are doing what they would call "okay." PTSD is very very common, but most of the men have highly functioning lives, jobs, wives, families. We don't talk on a deeply emotional level very much, but a lot of them are in counseling, a lot of them complain about the VA, express concern about anger management problems or depression, but to you and me and they outside face they present, they are completely normal solid members of society.

That said, a few of them are definitely having trouble assimilating back into society. Drinking, difficulty holding a job. And not within the immediate circle of soldiers I knew best, but there have been a few suicides that have sent ripples throughout their extended networks.

I should also add that a fair number of soldiers, if not from 1st Platoon, then certainly Bravo Company and 1st Battalion, are still in the Army and are on their fifth and sixth deployments. John Diem, if you remember him from the book, he is for example still in Bravo Company and on, I think, his fifth or sixth deployment. He's arguably spent most of his adult life at war.

And your second question about how the book was received: To my great relief and delight, the book has been very well received by communities of every political persuasion. I did have a fear before publication that maybe the book would be perceived as anti-American or anti-Army when, in my mind, the book is resolutely apolitical. That is also part of the reason that my sources and endnotes are so extensive. I knew that the book needed to be factually bulletproof, because I was afraid that, yes, somebody would come after it, questioning the veracity of the events or challenging my integrity. To my relief, that never happened. I have never had any reaction from any quarter, of people who have tried to deny or denigrate the versions of events that I outline, even among the staunchest of the war's supporters. I also think even the most conservative of readers realize that the book's mission is not really to criticize the Army or America or whatever, but to criticize THIS chain of command specifically, THESE events specifically.

So the editorial reviews were very positive and support from communities of every political persuasion were really gratifying, but beyond that the outpouring of support soldiers has been the biggest reward. As I said, I am still in touch with many of the characters in the book. But I also get emails from other soldiers on a nearly daily basis who said they loved the book because even aside from the events, which they find horrifying too, they thought I captured what it was like to really be there.

And the reaction from the broader, larger institutional Army has been nothing short of amazing. The Army, in a remarkable display of maturity and openness to criticism has definitely taken the book in a great degree the way I intended it, which is as a meditation on leadership, particularly bad leadership. I have been invited up to West Point three times already to speak to cadets, the commandant of West Point put the book on his personal recommended books reading list, and I have heard stories from other training centers around the country that the book is required reading in many units. That, to me, is an incredible honor, because I thought as I was writing it that if I could change the outlook of one young lieutenant out there and if I made him think about leadership styles at all differently, then I had succeeded. So, it is really gratifying, a career highlight, really, to know that there are thousands of young lieutenants and captains out there reading the book.

And to your final question: I definitely want to write another book. But whether it will be about Iraq or Afghanistan I couldn't really say. I am open to anything if it is a story that really grabs me.

Hi Tasha. Thanks for reading the book and I am happy there is a visiting group from the History Book Club that has made its way over here.

And I am glad you decided to read Dave Grossman's book. I find his work fascinating, and also fairly rare. I have not found a lot of researchers who look at the questions he does in the way he does.

I would also highly, highly recommend Achilles in Vietnam. That book informed much of my thinking of the Black Hearts crime and helped me get to the point where I myself could understand how it happened.

Terri wrote: "Hi there Jim, I am really glad to see this discussion crop up.

I read Black Hearts not long ago. Ah..off the top of my head, about 3 weeks ago. I read it close on the heels of [book:The Good Soldi..."

Hi Terri. Thanks for your extensive and very thoughtful comments. I am, in a way, sorry that you found the book difficult to read but, of course, I am flattered, because the book was designed to be that way. It was a difficult crime to cover and research and definitely write about, but if it moved you in some way, if you felt the horror of it, then I do feel like it was successful.

Likewise, I am sorry you had a difficult time reconciling yourself with Kunk's leadership style, but also this was by design, since so many of his men also seemed to have the same difficulty.

And, yes, the family fracas was indeed chaotic, but you are right, it did seem to stem from a deep and unreconcilable cultural chasm. The family could not believe it, could not believe, that Green was not put to death. It was beyond their comprehension, and so they chalked it up to racism. I don't believe this. I do think that the mitigating testimony of how difficult Green's childhood was would have saved his life with this jury even if his victims had been Americans but it would have been difficult explaining that mechanism of compassion in our courts to them.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi Jim,

I just found this site and wanted to say that I really enjoyed your book although the story was pretty horrific. One thing that I would like to comment on was what happened to those in c..."

Hi Aussie Rick. Thanks for joining and your comments. I just discovered that Black Hearts was discussed in the History Book Club and I really enjoyed reading your comments and thanks for participating here.

You asked about accountability. In Black Hearts and a couple times at TIME, where I am a writer and an editor, I have written about accountability, and I think it is true that, in this case, and in many cases, the Army tends to talk a better game about accountability than it lives up to. There is a saying that "A commander is responsible for everything his or her soldiers do--or fail to do." And, as Black Hearts shows, sometimes that's just not true. Responsibility and accountability tend to be localized at the squad or platoon level or maybe the company level.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has started championing an increase in accountability, but that's going to be an uphill climb. There is a good quote from Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling who said this in a 2007 article in the Armed Forces Journal: "A general who presides over a massive human rights scandal or a substantial deterioration in security ought to be retired at a lower rank ... As matters stand now, a private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war."

Hi Paul. Thanks for your comments. I am trying to encourage more soldiers and vets, and even people who appear in Black Hearts, to join this group and talk about some of the issues found in it, so I am glad you are here. I took my mission of relaying the events of B co's experiences in the Triangle of Death in 2005-6 very seriously, and embedded myself with several units there in 2008, including a couple of different battalions from the 101st Airborne. I am glad you had a good experience with the reporter who was with you. I know that the relationship between the media and the military is not always a smooth one, but in my experience the level of mutual respect has been very high.

Hello and welcome. I am happy to be here and honored to be asked by Goodreads to participate in this book group. It is scheduled to last a week. And I see that we have a fairly small group so far, but in order to kick things off, I guess I can throw it out to the few group members who have already signed up, and ask if they have any questions or any themes they would like to discuss first?