December 22, 2005 - "I thought it out. Imagine a war where you can call home after a bad day. Does that make it easier, more familiar?

"'Hey, Honey, how was your day?'

"'Oh, you know, same old stuff, killing, dying. That sort of sh*t. How about you?' The skeptics, the reporters, the pro and antiwar demonstrators, they're all wrong. The news says the war's over. That was fine by us. No one else belonged there anyway. This was our war, this was my war, and it's the only one I had. I may have had my doubts about it but it was something to hold on to. I looked forward to my phone call, knowing that my wife would tell me to calm down, that it was just a dream, that there was no other man - there never are, after all."

Crawford, John ; The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell ; An Accidental Soldiers Account of The War In Iraq; Riverhead Books, New York, 2005. pp 72-73

Those who have been there will recognize the truth of John Crawford's account. Those who have not can find in its pages a powerful message as he takes you with him from the urgent message to report that interrupted his honeymoon to the semi-homeless existence he leads after his Florida National Guard unit finally came home after more than a year.

I don't know Crawford's politics. After reading and re-reading his book I still don't know whether supported the decision to go to war in Iraq or indeed, if he did, whether he still does? This isn't a pro or anti war book. It is one lonely young man trying to let you know what his war felt like and what it still feels like for him.

It is not a heroic tale yet Crawford comes across as a hero not so much for what he did in Iraq but for what he endured in Iraq. His book won't change anybody's mind but it will give those who have never been there an idea of what there is like for the men and women who must live it.

Crawford's Last True Story stands in stark contrast to the misrepresentations that sent him there; misrepresentations that the President and his supporters are still trying to convince us were not really misrepresentations at all even as the magnitude of the lies is exposed day by day.