Klynn’s blog

HW 35A: Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,

                After reading only the first few pages of the book Baghdad Burning based on your blogs from Iraq, my ideas have completely changed.  Being American, I was worried about the soldiers that risk their lives being in a place of war.  Of course I had thought about the people that actually live there, yet I never really thought to stop and look at it from your point of view.  That’s what your writing has done for me.  To look at your opinions on government officials like President Bush, it’s almost comical.  The fact that you feel like hundreds of Americans do, and he isn’t even your president!  Although you too, being affected by the war, are then in turn, affected by his decisions.  The first few sentences from a post you had, titled “Another Day” says “Normal morning.  We were up at early morning, did the usual ‘around the house things,’ you know-check if the water tank is full, try to determine when the electricity will be off, checked if there was enough cooking gas…”  That simple statement really made me think.  The fact that you look at checking to see if you have water or electricity as a sort of normal everyday occurrence is saddening, and humbling.  I would consider around the house tasks to be doing things like vacuuming, sweeping, and watering the plants.  I seem to forget, like I think many other Americans do what we have and what is available to us.  I’m glad that I have the opportunity to continue reading this book, and I’m thankful you decided to write your experiences, so that finally, others could look at the war in Iraq from a different perspective.

Sincerely,

Kelsea Laro