Every Man in this Village is a Liar

Prologue
In this chapter Stack describes the effects of conflict on the lives of both people who have experienced war and people who have not experienced war. Stack provides an example in the form of her relative, John a former American marine. John was sent to Beirut to combat the Hezbollah and whilst fighting there he experienced the true nature of war. He returned later however “he wasn’t all right”. He committed suicide due to the effects of war and the conflicts that he experienced. Thus Stack came to the conclusion that after being in a war zone, “you could survive and not survive, both at the same time”; she realises that you can mentally die from war but physically survive. War places a strain …show more content…

Stack knew that this conflict would “tangle America in time and blood” and make them forget their other battles. The effects of the battles could be seen at a children’s hospital that Stack visits. The staff had dug up the hospital gardens just to “make room for the nameless dead”. Families were everywhere looking for their missing children or army recruits who had “gone off to do their duty”. This shows the effects that conflict can have on civilians; destroying their lives and tearing apart families. Furthermore, there is no electricity present in many parts of the city; this lack of electricity is one of the many repercussions which are experienced from combat. Additionally, the conflict in Baghdad was shown to escalate so much that people wanted to escape the city. Stack describes absolute chaos as “cars packed the roads on the edge of town”; “every bit of pavement was packed tight with humans and their machines” as they endeavoured to liberate themselves from anarchy. There were many civilian casualties as a result of this conflict and this resulted in animosity towards the occupying forces. Stack describes the United States forces as “a nasty, impersonal force” because of the fact that they did almost as much bad as they did good.

The Living Martyr
Although the American invasion had finished, the remains of it still existed. There were “stray cluster bombs, blasted craters and burned-out cars” all over the roads. However, this invasion had liberated