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Their War, Their Words
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Bookstores are filling with instant memoirs by troops fresh from the front and eager to tell us what war is like. But are they helping us understand what it means?

MICHAEL SLENSKE
Michael Slenske last wrote for the magazine about war letter archivist Andrew Carroll.

October 9 2005

Until you've driven a humvee on a recon mission wearing nightvision goggles, which is like hitting fastballs with a microscope attached to your forehead, only exponentially harder, because even the slightest mistake, sniper fire or incoming rocket-propelled grenades can kill you and your entire crew; or unless you've sweated through 130-degree heat inside a tank, where bottled water sometimes explodes, spraying plastic shrapnel and scalding liquid in your already dripping face; or until skin falls off your feet in sheets because you've worn the same combat boots, with the same socks, for 10 days, don't pretend to know what American soldiers and Marines are going through in Iraq;unless you're willing to read their stories.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/printediti...a-home-magazine