Places And Names: On War, Revolution, And Returning

"Elliot Ackerman was a Marine – five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan – and years afterward, he decides to sit down with the enemy. So he invites Abu Hassar, who fought for al-Qaida in Iraq, to lunch. They don’t share a common language. During one particularly awkward silence, Ackerman opens his notebook to a clean page. He draws a ribbon – the Euphrates River. Abu Hassar recognizes it and scribbles in the name of a town where he fought. “Our hands now chase each other around the map, mimicking the way we’d once chased each other around this country,” Ackerman writes, as it dawns on both men that they fought the same war, just different sides. Beautiful writing about combat and humanity and what it means to “win” a war."