Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians

by Chris Hedges, Laila Al-Arian

Best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and journalist Laila Al-Arian spent the past year interviewing over fifty veterans to expose the patterns of the occupation in Iraq. The testimonies of these soldiers—many of who remain deeply traumatized by their experiences—uncover how the very conduct of the war and occupation have turned the American forces into agents of terror for most Iraqis. Collateral Damage is organized around key military operations—Convoys, Checkpoints, Detentions, Raids, Suppressive Fire, and “Hearts and Minds.” Military convoys traveling at tremendous speeds through towns have become trains of death. Civilians are routinely run over or shot to death. Soldiers fire upon Iraqi vehicles with impunity at checkpoints. Late-night detentions based on shoddy intelligence terrify women, traumatize children, and radicalize the young men caught in their dragnet. These soldiers have found the moral courage to speak out about the true nature of a war that has become one long, unchecked atrocity, and has given rise to the instability, sectarian violence and chaos that we witness today in Iraq.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Middle East, War, Audiobook, The United States Of America

160 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2007

About the author

Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies.

Hedges is known as the best-selling author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

Chris Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mercifully short. I don't say mercifully because it's not well written, but because it gives an unpleasant glimpse of the systemic atrocities that a so-called civilized nation is capable of in time of armed conflict. You can only absorb so much of that stuff before it becomes tiring.

Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian interviewed 50 men and women from the American armed services specifically regarding how the military operation in Iraq affected the citizens of that country. I wish I could say I was shocked at the result, but the world is well acquainted with the excesses suffered by the Iraqi people during the coalition occupation.

It has been observed by many soldiers that the "insurgency" in Iraq was largely of American making...that they were welcomed as liberators and builders in the beginning. (In fact, Iraq had electricity and water before the coalition troops arrived...many places had no electricity or potable water when the troops pulled out...Iraq was actually in worse circumstances after American "aid") It was only later when it was realized that no building was under way and that the great convoys making tracks across their country were mostly supplies to maintain the privileged lifestyle the military was accustomed to stateside that support for the armed opposition to coalition troops gained strength. People would be shot up cutting between vehicles in a convoy. Others would be massacred at a checkpoint because they approached too quickly; some were killed by negligent discharge of a service weapon. The "insurgency" grew with every death, every atrocity.

Some (probably all) of the military men and women interviewed for this book were deeply disturbed by incidents they witnessed or participated in. In many cases these troops tried to act in an honorable manner, tried to report atrocities and shortcomings to superiors, only to be silenced or even threatened. They found that no honor remains in the upper levels of the American profession of arms. In fact, in some cases they were actually ordered to prey on the Iraqi public: the case of one unit that stole a generator from Iraqi civilians when their own broke down comes immediately to mind. We have to face it: the only honor left in a profession that prides itself in honor is found only at the individual level...it is no longer practical policy.

I think that the writers could have delved deeper into the possibility of racism as a factor in the abuse of Iraqis. Can you imagine the howl of outrage the world would hear if captured American soldiers were forced into one of the obscene human piles of outraged flesh we saw at Abu Ghraib? I asked myself if the opponent were from a European country...say for example Russia or Ukraine...would we see the same atrocities inflicted on them by American captors? I seriously doubt it. So what is the reason? That Americans felt superior to the Iraqis? That the Iraqis were dirt poor and totally unable to retaliate? The answers are not in the book, and you will need to look elsewhere for them.

This book is dated, of course. We all know what is happening to the hapless citizens of Iraq now. More troops will have to be sent in to sort out this situation; I hope none of them are captured.

[The Conspiracy is Capitalism · Rating 5 out of 5]

2 types of war books impress me: 1) Reveal and deconstruct "war culture", that which facilitates society to commit the greatest evil, 2) Imprint the depravity of war onto your soul so it can never be forgotten. This book falls into the latter category, such vivid illustrations of how war wrenches the very worst out of everyone involved. There is no mythical heroism, no trace of decency, for every action is in the context of either annihilating another human being or surviving such evil like a tortured creature. Every participant has lost a piece of their autonomy to be a human being. This systemic theft is the greatest evil.
I read this book several years ago, it deserves to be revisited, but I cannot say that I will.

[Anne Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any work that illuminates the terror the US military inflicted on Iraqi civilians is extremely important

I would say that, in order to paint a full picture, the book was missing the perspectives of surviving Iraqis, but I know the scope of the book was interviewing American military members which was really powerful

In terms of related work on the horrors of the Iraq war, I Highly recommend the “in the dark” podcast from the New Yorker that investigates the Haditha massacre and features the perspectives of a lot of Iraqi civilians

[Yonis Gure · Rating 3 out of 5]

“As I told the President on January 10th, I think [the troops] will be greeted with sweets and flowers”.

The infamous words uttered by Kanan Makiya - an exiled Iraqi Panjandrum - which should’ve, if it didn’t elicit derision for its proven mendacity and callousness, made one eager to express their mirth, especially those who considered themselves friends of the Democratic Iraqi Kurds of the North. Unfortunately, as predicted by many, Iraqis resisted the occupation immediately, went to great lengths to prove they deplored it and Kanan Makiya was proven to be a useful idiot.

Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian have revealed, through hours of interviews with combat veterans, a side of war that largely wasn’t shown to the public. Everything from; providing KBR and other contractors with higher levels of security than ordinary Iraqis, to making the scene of a shooting appear as if the civilian was armed, when soldiers or marines felt there was a possibility of an investigation, to torturing Iraqi detainees in ways that could make the average person vomit, and much more heinous and stomach churning acts are all documented in detail in this book.

My moderate rating of this book is by no means a reflection on the integrity, bravery and candor, exhibited and exuded by these veterans, as they document the inhumane, barbaric and despicable treatment of Iraqi civilians during the decade long occupation of Iraq by their fellow soldiers. However, the book doesn’t exactly point the finger at a particular person, which can lead one to believe that no one is at fault. I can imagine the general reader picking this title up and completely absolving Tony Blair of any wrongdoing at all upon finishing this. Hedges and Al-Arian have done us a tremendous service by showing us what really happened during the occupation, but I’d’ve liked to see more blame gaming.

[Eduardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to put it down after the first page because I was getting a knot in my throat, watery eyes and a flushed face. Every responsible U.S. citizen needs to read this stuff.

[Bilal Yassine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The interviews with American Iraq War veterans do a good job of breaking down the reality of what an occupation actually is: the raids, the checkpoints, the convoys, the prisons. Just utter dehumanization of an occupied people so soldiers can cope with inflicting mass violence upon them.

My problem is the book will often stop short of providing deeper analysis or pointing the blame anywhere… I was shocked at how it would describe the torture and murder of Iraqi civilians and basically shrug its shoulders, as if these horrors are nobody’s fault and that this is just the grim reality of war.

I appreciated the book for what it was but was left disgusted at the “shoot & cry” mentality for many of the US troops. They ruthlessly torture and murder Iraqis, wreak havoc on an entire nation, and come back to cry about how it made them feel…

[Ulrich Krieghund · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lean, no bullshit account told from the perspective of soldiers who were fed up and disgusted by the humiliation, degradation and uncounted carnage visited upon the Iraqi civilian populace.

Most of America's problems among the infantry and mechanized units evolved from a combination of a language barrier the size of The Wall in a Song of Ice and Fire and a eroding leveling of empathy and humanity on the part of the invading army.

Once again I must revisit the salient, sage advice of George Carlin:

Human beings will do anything, anything. I am convinced. That's why when all those beheadings started in Iraq, it didn't bother me. A lot of people here were horrified, "Whaaaa, beheadings! Beheadings!" What, are you fucking surprised? Just one more form of extreme human behavior. Besides, who cares about some mercenary civilian contractor from Oklahoma who gets his head cut off? Fuck 'em. Hey Jack, you don't want to get your head cut off? Stay the fuck in Oklahoma. They ain't cuttin' off heads in Oklahoma, far as I know. But I do know this: you strap on a gun and go struttin' around some other man's country, you'd better be ready for some action, Jack. People are touchy about that sort of thing. And let me ask you this... this is a moral question, not rhetorical, I'm looking for the answer: what is the moral difference between cuttin' off one guy's head, or two, or three, or five, or ten - and dropping a big bomb on a hospital and killing a whole bunch of sick kids?

Stark in its presentation of the sheer stupidity on the ground level of a war with no finish line and missions with no goals, Collateral Damage gives us death without glory tempered with a necessary measure of gallows humor.

What's missing in the book are the glory hounds who just loved lighting up "hajis" and returned to America to gloat about it as is the condemnation of the higher ups of the Bush administration for getting us into a pointless war in the first place: Cheney, Rumsfeld and of course George the Lesser himself.

However, perhaps the Congressional Medal of Honor and a giant Mission Accomplished banner should go to one SPC Phillip Chrsytal, who managed to find what all of the American troops stationed in Iraq during Operation Fuck-em-They're-Brown-People were looking for in the first place:

"Specialist Chrystal said that he and his platoon leader shared a joke of their own! When he raided a house he would radio in and say, 'This is, you know, Thirty-One Lima. Yeah, I found the weapons of mass destruction in here.'"

[Mehwish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iraq war was a failure. Most know that.

The narratives and testimonies of the combat veterans who served in Iraq, brings to light, the humiliation, loss and torture suffered by the Iraqi civilians on a daily basis. It invoked extremely strong emotions of disgust, sadness and rage.

I kept on thinking that if my house was raided and destroyed in the middle of the night, if my family was abused in front of me, if I had lost a family member in a car while just driving to get around, if I was detained for no good reason, if I was called a "fucking Haji", If the people who were there to fix my country destroyed it further, if I was dehumanised to a point where no one gave a fuck, it would only take me a second to be radicalised, to seek revenge, to kill.

"Collateral Damage" is a very sublime term used to unapologetically shift the burden of responsibility from one to no one. The authors did us a great service by spelling it out, giving it a face, making it human.

A must read for everyone.

[Easter · Rating 4 out of 5]

As though the atrocities at Abu Ghraib weren't bad enough, this book lists more of the atrocities US soldiers have committed during the illegal Iraqi occupation.
Whether it's shooting innocent civilians or killing them when we recklessly drive into their vehicles, this book scratches the surface of the continuous damage we cause.
If you need to understand why the Iraqi civilians are joining the other side, this is a must read.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dispicable and inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians is hauntingly recounted by U.S. military veterans of the Iraqi conflict. I was not surprised but I still was horrified by the stories told. Quick read if you are interested in the topic

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confirms what is inferred from the news of the Iraq occupation.

[Petter Nordal · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's easy to forget the wars going on. This book is collected from interview with american soldiers about their experiences in Iraq. It's not glamorous or pretty. It's bad. I recommend it highly.

[Dovide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too often, discussions about the Iraq War remain fixed on the macro: the flawed diplomacy, the geopolitics, the unilateral decision by the Bush administration to invade under false pretences. Crucial points as they may be, they can sometimes obscure the ground-level brutality–the horrors inflicted on everyday Iraqis by a system designed to dehumanize, and destroy them.

By interviewing 50 American soldiers who partook in the occupation, Hedges and Al-Arian recenter these horrors. These accounts paint the true picture of the war in Iraq; not just a geopolitical blunder and a strategic fiasco, but a brutal war waged on Iraqi civilians.

The testimonies about the American convoy "force protections" were some of the most harrowing to me. Many of the soldiers described a common scenario: a car would approach a convoy. A warning sign would be held up, followed by a warning shot. If the car didn’t stop immediately—often because the driver was confused, scared, didn’t speak English, or had a faulty vehicle—the soldiers were trained to "eliminate the threat" by firing into the passenger cabin. The victims were described as: "Just people in cars. A family. A guy going to work. An old man who probably couldn’t even see the signs we were holding up." The Americans, so sensitive to their own casualties, were willing to mow down hundreds of innocent Iraqis rather than risk any harm to "their own."

The authors render this brutal reality with such clarity that the book is, at times, physically difficult to read. I felt ill from the visceral accounts, and several brought me to tears at the sheer injustice. Ultimately, their work is a painful but necessary act of witnessing. It confronts us with the human cost of abstract terms like 'occupation' and 'counter-terrorism.' What Hedges and Al-Arian expose is more than a failure of American foreign policy; it is a profound failure of humanity—one that demands the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims be remembered.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading in every junior year history class in the US. It should also be required reading for every US citizen. Maybe then we’d bring home our troops and stop killing around the world.

This book is composed of themed collections of interviews with US veterans of service in Iraq, this is simply crushing in how it depicts the cost to Iraqi dignity and lives. Additionally, it depicts the moral degradation to the Americans thrust into this foolish war without planning and without an executable mission.

George W Bush and especially Cheney should be in prison for war crimes.

[Ana-Maria Bujor · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I've had a less than stellar experience with another book from the author, this one is really good at what it does. Instead of preaching, this one lets the veterans explain in their own words why things went so wrong. Dehumanization, constant fear, chaos, complete lack of planning, raids, check points, all gather to create a climate from which nothing good can come up. A short, but necessary book.

[El · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required high school reading. If you finish this book and believe we should be in these middle east and Asian wars - that we should have gone to war with a country that not only did not attack us in any way, but that would not have... I've got bridges for sale to discuss with you. Quite an achievement and a very emotional read.

[Kate H · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* today. probably 4* about 14 years ago. but I'm obviously reading an outdated account.

it's a good piece of investigative journalism.

"And stupid tshirts that say who's your bag-daddy" - oof

"The most convenient target was Iraqi civilians. The goal of the occupation became survival, little more." proud of Mom for helping this generation.

[Jessica Nish · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the kinds of books that “western/developed” nations need to incorporate into high school curriculum. Unfortunately, I never see that happening. Why show the realities of trauma and ptsd and the result of dehumanization campaigns when it could rock the very propaganda that needs mythology to keep it afloat?

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very efficient. Says what it wants to say. A painful book, but one that says what needs to be said.

[Darren-lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Nothing new.

[Lucas Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Jonny-Loves-ta-Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book exploring the situation of Iraqi natives through the perspectives of American veterans.

If you are curious about the progress in Iraq made between the initial American invasion of Iraq and when this book was published in 2008, read on. Chris Hedges highlights the cost of this American war on the people of Iraq through the eyes of American veterans.

The most accessible moments in this book are when you uncover the progressive disillusionment of American soldiers. Soldiers report feeling justified and hopeful when they first landed on Iraqi soil, but the feeling they were there to help the Iraqi people and fight terrorists in tangible ways dissipated rapidly. The American and coalition forces campaign of “liberation” has resulted with reduced standards of living and poorer economic conditions. Chris Hedges informs us Iraqi’s were richer under the regime the American’s liberated Iraq citizens from.

Grandiose arguments about the moral/political/economic/religious aspects of the war on terror, or even war in general are avoided. The suffering of innocent citizens is the focus of this book. The perspectives of the veterans adds legitimacy to the book and to the stories told within it. Blood and guts are a staple of the conversations with veterans you find yourself in the midst of. Hedges found his veterans through advocacy groups that actively protest the war in Iraq and through referrals from veterans who identify as conscientious objectors.

Some may cite Hedges sources as a reason the personal anecdotes are not objective, and therefore not accurate or trustworthy. Having said that, there is a problem with this view. The point of this book is not to provide an objective account of what is going on in Iraq, but rather to explore the dehumanization of the Iraqi people at the hands of the American military. Of course these accounts are not objective. Objectivity is not what we are supposed to be paying attention to. The power of stories is located precisely within their raw subjectivity. The emotional accounts of soldiers watching a mission going sour should grab your attention. Enough books have been written justifying or condemning the American government’s missions in the middle east. These stories offer us portraits of dying children, grieving families and soldiers who are frustrated with themselves. These stories beg the question: What do you think about all of this?

[Yousif Al-Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

That last chapter man…

[Kasandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though our war in Iraq has ended, this book is an essential reminder of what happens every day in war. Its depiction of the ways in which young Americans were sent to a foreign country with no (or painfully few) interpreters, no agreed-upon standards for checkpoints, house raids, and the like, and no clear idea of why they were there or who the "enemy" was is disheartening, to say the least. Brutality was an everyday occurrence, but thankfully there were a few solders who chose to speak out for this book, many of whom left the U.S. military as conscientious objectors, and at least one of whom was imprisoned for desertion after being sent home for 2 weeks' leave and refusing to return for reasons of conscience. For those of us never in combat, what we see and hear on TV can be a deadening blanket of false reassurance and platitudes. This book pulls back the cover of artful euphemism and shows us what really happens when we decide our country's mission is to go to war in a country where we have little to no cultural, linguistic, religious, or political understanding of who its inhabitants really are.

[Anatolikon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discusses, using interviews with soldiers rather than statistics, the increasingly hostile view taken towards Iraqis by the American occupying forces. While plenty of racism and bad behaviour can be found, the soldiers generally blame their situation on their superiors, who are accused of equipping them poorly (linguistic, cultural training) and for instituting policies that helped to create violence. The soldiers interviewed felt that they were regularly asked to do things (checkpoints, raids) that alienated the population. The gulf that this created led to a situation where civilians were increasingly dehumanized. The result was that frightened and trigger-happy soldiers were inclined to shoot first, with horrific consequences for the occupied and few for those pulling the trigger. At no point is attention given to the use of civilians as a strategy by insurgent forces; they are almost entirely absent from this piece.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read that documents various atrocities committed by the U.S. occupation against the Iraqi people. Convoys, checkpoints, raids, detentions- all lay bare-face the brutality and racism that are part-and-parcel of the occupation, and remind those of us in the anti-war movement why "Support Our Troops" isn't the best slogan to take up.

Too bad Hedges concludes with, essentially, "we need to win hearts and minds of Iraqis so we can occupy their country more efficiently," practically ruining the book by seriously undermining/diluting the otherwise powerful testimonies from U.S. soldiers who witnessed/participated in violence against Iraqi civilians.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you really want to know why "they" hate us, this book will enlighten you, in every gruesome detail. US soldiers are trained to be narcissistic, nihilist, necrophiliac, pornographers of violence for the State. Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian use numerous interviews they've compiled with soldiers that did tours in the Iraq war and occupation, to lay out how the Iraqi citizens were "collateral damage", how they were treated like "unpeople" (to use Orwell's word), to show how grotesque this war was, especially when even the Iraqi government (let alone the common citizens) had nothing to do with 9/11, had no weapons of mass destruction (which we already knew), and harbored no Al Qaeda.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking, sickening. If anyone has the belief that war is at times justified, they should read this. The atrocities that have been done to the Iraqi
people are shocking. Running down children and old people who happen to be in the path of a convoy speed train, the disgusting redneck mentality of many soldiers, the multiple atrocities committed against the people of Iraq, are horrendous. This is a lose-lose situation. Makes me very fearful of our country's future when these young Iraqi people become older.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The treatment of Iraqi and Afghan people by the military occupation is systemically inhumane. There is little cultural training and the void leads to a racially tinted hatred for all people in the occupied country. Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian do a good job puts hoeing the injustices from the American occupier perspective. It is a limited scope reading but can add to the greater dishonesty and failure in the Iraqi Freedom mission.

[Abood · Rating 4 out of 5]

good, although I was unimpressed with the tarring of all communities, religious or otherwise, with the same brush of pushing their adherents toward the same ruinous beliefs (i.e. I think hedges' anti-organized religion kick got the better of him in this one...he considers organized religion "demonic" as he said in a forum in Berkeley).