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The Hero and the Victim situates Iraq War fiction in war literature’s broader history. In contrast to the emphasis of most pre-modern war literature on the figure of the warrior-as-hero, and the growing modern emphasis on the figure of the soldier-as-victim, Iraq War fiction reflects the troubled emergence of a new narrative: the story of the ordinary soldier as a wrongdoer or even criminal.

The close affinity between recipients of aid and the security concerns of donors ensures the success of neither. As U.S. failures in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq have proven (and U.S. General Petraeus has said), wars cannot be fought, nor won ‘through military means alone.' The military-industrial-complex and U.S. war machine that exploits the vagueness of war to pursue its aims, must recognize militaristic confrontation will only nurture intolerance. Internal turf wars between U.S. agencies (the Department of Defense and State Department) frustrate the efforts of both, while leaving ...