Behind the Lines *book portfolio*

Behind the Lines, by Andrew Carroll was published in 2005. This is a book of war letters from around the world from all different wars. The oldest letter is from the Revolutionary war and the some of the newest letters are from over in the Middle East. The theme I found throughout the letters was that war will not solve everything.

The first example was in the letters during the Civil War. Soldiers wrote about how they fought for their country, but they were fighting against their country men. One soldier even wrote that he had killed his cousin during a battle. Some of the soldiers during the Civil War wrote letters about how they thought it was pointless to fight against their own country, which it is. As you can see, fighting against your own country will solve anything.

The next point that was in the book was during the Vietnam War. Soldiers wrote about how they went out day after day and accomplished nothing. The U.S. was in war but was making no progress. Each day soldiers may kill a few Vietnamese but for no cause. Some of the letters even talked about how soldiers were deployed to the field but did nothing for the whole time they were in the service. Overall, nothing was acomplished during the Vietnam War except for a few small things.

The last points that refrence back to the theme are from the letters from the Iraq War. The letters of this war reflect back saying each day we acomplish nothing but maybe kill a few terrorists. Letters also talk about how the war is going no where and it how it does't look like it will.

After reading this book, what is the point of war if we cant solve everything by it. Everyday we hear of people fighting, for what? Nothing. War will not solve everything as seen in Behind the Lines.