Bodies

Bodies
In chapter eight, The Iraq-Iran Front: Bodies, Horwitz describes a battle scene after combat and his description is both overwhelming and shocking. During Horwitz stay in Iraq he tried numerous times to meet with high ranking officials, or government leaders in order to receive information or details about virtually anything that was happening in Iraq. Horwitz had very little success because the Iraqi government kept practically everything secret accept for the “great victories” they had or “great success” they made. Finally, one night Horwitz was awakened by a man he had met with earlier that week informing him to come to the airport in order to go to the Southern Front to see a battle scene. I was extremely surprised that they invited him to go see the aftermath of a battle because I thought if anything they would want to keep the war details and facts secret. But, I quickly realized that the only reason they were showing reporters this scene was because it made the Iraqi people look strong and victorious. The Iraqis had removed all of their soldiers’ bodies, and simply left all the Iranian bodies. The government kept the number of Iraqi soldiers’ dead a secret because it made Iraq appear weak but flaunted the deaths of their enemies in order to make Iraq look superior. The actual war scene was disturbing, horrible, and overall sad. Horwitz said it was impossible to move ten feet without coming upon an Iranian body. The description of the conditions of the bodies was horrible. Horwitz statement that many of the men dead were of his age, killed in a “pointless war” was very interesting to read because it is half true. I am not so sure if it is a “pointless war,” but he is right that it is sad the majority of the dead soldiers are his age. When I read about the dead Iranian teenager I wanted to cry because he died at such a young age. A teenager close to my own age died. The scene of the cage filled with Iranian prisoners was equally if not more upsetting. I could not believe that one young Iranian man grabbed Horwitz’s leg to write down his name and birth date in order for Horwitz to inform his brother that he had seen him. I cannot even imagine how that man must have felt knowing he was not going to be released, or how his family must have felt if and when they found out where he was. It finally hit me when I read this scene that this war actually happened, that these were and are real people.

MLD