Best-selling 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 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.