![]() “Psychological Operations” examines the aftermath of the war for a college student at Amherst. ![]() There seems to be no point to the war for the Americans or the Iraqis, and God seems indifferent to the struggles of each side. In “Prayer in the Furnace,” a chaplain finds himself facing a crisis of faith as he struggles to help a Marine deal with the hatred and rage he feels for all humanity as his time in Iraq grows longer. Eventually he is reduced to trying to start an initiative that will teach widows how to become beekeepers. He is beset at each turn by incompetent or indifferent superiors, apathetic coworkers, hostile Iraqis, and the demands of a congressional representative back in the US. The story “Money As a Weapons System” plays almost as satire as it illustrates the bureaucracy a Civil Service engineer faces while trying to get a water plant working in Iraq. His own dog has fallen sick and needs to be euthanized, but he decides to do it himself instead of allowing a stranger to kill his animal. When he returns home, he finds that he and his wife are often uncomfortable around each other. ![]() In the title story, a Marine who has returned home reminisces about shooting dogs in Iraq after he saw one lapping up the blood of a corpse. The majority of the stories have overlapping themes, but the subjects and locations are different. The stories each have a different first-person narrator. ![]()
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