One of Ours

Sunday's New York Times has the second installment of final letters home from American servicepersons who have died in Iraq. The feature carries the title "The Things They Wrote," which is undoubtedly an allusion to Tim O'Brien's 1990 novel The Things They Carried. O'Brien, who saw combat as an infantryman in Vietnam, wrote the book as both a criticism of the war and a tribute to those soldiers who fought it. One gets the same impression today from the New York Times -- that it means to praise the brave men and women who serve in the military, while simultaneously showing the cost of war and the folly of America's leaders. I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the use of soldiers' personal letters for this purpose, although I think it's a great tribute to have these soldiers' thoughts forever memorialized on the NYT op-ed page. Read the letters, and come to your own conclusions.