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Letter to the editor

'The Sutras of Abu Ghraib' paints a graphic picture

In his memoir, former Army reservist Aidan Delgado tells of the horrors that prompted him to become a conscientious objector.

By Nathaniel French, Special to the Times
Published September 23, 2007

The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: Notes from a Conscientious Objector
By Aidan Delgado
Beacon Press, 224 pages, $24.95 

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"The military is a vast, lumbering, bureaucratic machine," Aidan Delgado writes. "The sad truth is that often the only way to make changes is go outside the Army system to take grievances to the media, to Congress, or to the American public."

In his memoir The Sutras of Abu Ghraib, Delgado does just that, painting a graphic portrait of American involvement in Iraq.

Delgado was a student at New College in Sarasota in 2001 when he joined the Army Reserve. He writes that he hoped to gain a sense of Americanness after having lived most of his life overseas as a diplomat's son.

When his unit was sent to Iraq, Delgado was faced with contradictory responses: an increasing love for and feeling of camaraderie with his closest friends, and a revulsion at the racism and cruelty he perceived in many soldiers.

He describes the events that shaped his growing disillusionment. First, soldiers hunted dogs for amusement, then Iraqi civilians became the target of glass bottles. Delgado was particularly disturbed by trophy photos taken by some of his comrades, celebrating the deaths of Iraqi prisoners killed in a riot.

Finally, there were the sheer filth and degradation at Abu Ghraib, where Delgado was stationed during the latter part of his deployment, coupled with his realizationthat most of the inmates were there by mistake.

Delgado decided that the actions of his comrades and his own complicity in the war could not be reconciled with his Buddhist beliefs, so he applied for conscientious objector status. After enduring months of retribution from his unit and his superiors, he was honorably discharged.

Reading The Sutras of Abu Ghraib is disheartening and at times horrifying. Delgado does not bring to light any shocking new revelations about the Iraq war; no scandal will emerge from the book's publication.

What is most disturbing is the routine nature of it all: The soldiers are everyday people who have been conditioned to brutality. Delgado was just one of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers who have served in Iraq, and his book offers glimpses into their everyday lives.

Since his return, Delgado has become active in the antiwar movement, speaking often and appearing in several films. Through these actions, and his book, Delgado airs his grievances, the truth as he knows it.

Nathaniel French is a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.

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Festival of Reading

Aidan Delgado and Malcolm MacPherson will appear on a panel, "The Iraq War: Roots and Realities," along with David Andelman (A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919and the Price We Pay Today), at the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading, on Oct.27 at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. For information, go to www.festivalofreading.com.

[Last modified September 20, 2007, 14:17:00]