The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell

I was shopping for a gift for a friend's son who likes reading about war. While there, one title kept drawing me in, so I grabbed it. I am currently reading The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell - An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford.

This is the first person story of a college student from Florida who joined the national guard, and ended up in Iraq far longer than the soldiers he was there with. So far, it is aptly named. Written in an easy to read style, it sounds like the boy next door gone to war. Most of the books which my military enthusiast young friend reads are of course glorifying war and read more like propaganda than history. However this book seems much closer to the truth mirrored in the eyes of those coming home from Iraq.

"The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.

We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it." -- John F. Kennedy

In a time when journalists are detained without trial, and speaking truth about the war in Iraq is called treason, I admire John Crawford for writing his truth. I will write a more complete review when I finish reading it.