Breaking Ranks Iraq Veterans Speak Out against the War [Hardcover]

Breaking Ranksbrings a new and deeply personal perspective to the war in Iraq by looking into the lives of six veterans who turned against the war they helped to fight. Based on extensive interviews with each of the six, the book relates why they enlisted, their experiences in training and in early missions, their tours of combat, and what has happened to them since returning home. The compelling stories of this diverse cross section of the military recount how each journey to Iraq began with the sincere desire to do good. Matthew Gutmann and Catherine Anne Lutz show how each individual's experiences led to new moral and political understandings and ultimately to opposing the war.

Matthew GutmannandCatherine Lutzare Professors of Anthropology at Brown University. Matthew Gutmann is the author ofThe Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City; The Romance of Democracy: Compliant Defiance in Contemporary Mexico; andFixing Men: Sex, Birth Control, and AIDS in Mexico, all from UC Press. Catherine Lutz is the author ofHomefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century, Reading National Geographic(with Jane Collins), andUnnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and their Challenge to Western Theory.

Contents
Introduction
A Different Kind of War Story

Part I Innocence

1 Recruiting Volunteers
2 Training
3 First Missions

Part II Wars Crucible

4 Inside Iraq, on the Outskirts of Reality
5 Face to Face with Iraqi Civilians
6 Awakenings

Part III Aftermath and Activism

7 Homecoming Traumas
8 Speaking Out

Conclusion Six Soldiers

Acknowledgments
Notes
Glossary

Breaking Rankseloquently documents the many ways that militarism infiltrates ordinary lives, and is a powerful reminder of the personal costs of war. A model of sensitivl#&