"A person's a person, no matter how small."

~Dr. Suess

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Response on From Baghdad, With Love



            I am responding to Henry’s post on the book From Baghdad, With Love. I also read this book over the summer. I thought it was amazing and very powerful. Personally, I am really not a big non-fiction reader. In fact, I try to stay away from that genre. So when I saw the summer reading list, I was, to say the least, a little upset. But after looking over the list, I decided to read this book. And I loved it. It is a really touching story about a soldier in Iraq who discovers this tiny, tough, and full of energy puppy. He and his men spend the rest of the book trying to get this puppy out of Fallujah. Like Henry, I found it inspiring that these tough soldiers who spend everyday witnessing deaths, (and worst of all creating deaths) and then come back to this campsite and play with a little puppy! The fact that this man even bothers to spend time with the little bundle of energy amazes me! 

I think that Lava, the puppy, brings them a little joy just when they need it. You would think that after many chewed on boots and peed on sleeping bags, they would kick out Lava. But they keep caring for him. It is sweet, it really is. Adding on to what Henry wrote, I think the army doesn’t allow pets in their camps because they don’t want soldiers to get too attached to anything. In a warzone like one that they are in, you never know when anyone (or thing) around you is going to die, so if one soldier gets too attached to a puppy and then the puppy dies, his heart might break. The author talks about how scary it is to just go to the port-a-pots in the middle of the night! But in a way, I think this makes the men even more insistent on keeping this puppy safe, and getting him home. 

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