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November 21, 2005
Speechless
I'm reading Looking for Jake, a short story collection by China Miéville. If you've read any Miéville, it shouldn't be surprising that more than one of the stories in the collection are deeply disturbing.
One in particular - "foundation" left a lasting image. I finished the penultimate story, and the boat was nearing the Seattle dock, so I decided not to start it yet, and flipped to the last few pages of the novel, and read the Acknowledgements.
The last paragraph caught me by surprise:
I would like to point out that the historical detail in the story "foundation" is accurate and a matter of record. The U.S. Army did bury Iraqi soldiers alive, using tanks mounted with plows. Among many other sources, see Patrick Sloyan's article "How the Mass Slaughter of a Group of Iraqis Went Unreported," The Guardian, 14 February 2003.
That reference led me here.
Posted by dberger at November 21, 2005 8:31 AM