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Rated of 5

Would you like to dance habibi?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot actually does have a military meaning . . . which we learn eventually one way or another. Dexter introduces his young Australian freelance photographer's book. Similar candid visceral tone of Forever War.

Should note the audio version with Dexter's own reading of Forever War is exciting because he actually lived the stories. So his intonation sounds perfectly natural and real. His pronunciation of the language adds authenticity and color to the dramatic and vivid writing . . .

Similarly on first impression of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot . . . while Dexter's book is so vivid, his partner's photography brings those emotions into focus with pictures of the real individuals Dexter describes encountering.

For example. The reader sees what remains of a structure after Sassaman's fateful wrath; that infamous obelisk of a mosque aiming it's lonely self skyward like a rocket before a 500 pound American bomb sends it to oblivion and rightly so; Ash puts a face on American hopes such as Chalabi who does look Americanized and the Iraqi and Kurd candidates who do not. Although the Kurd is in a suit and tie not robes. Both men have beards while Chalabi is clean shaven.

We see Dexter transmitting from his laptop as if he has blinkers on while a marine uses the same space as a latrine . . . we get words of wisdom in the form of Dexter stories ("Don't piss yourself" he tells Ash at bedtime . . . you will see why later . . . ) I have to say I find this team compelling. I tried to hide from the war for years . . . the way Ash says he tried to escape an enormous rocket that turned out to be American. If I cover my eyes it won't be there, it will go away. Now because of these trustworthy journalists I can look it square in the face and try to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Just having some order to the chaos, to this most macho and foreign of macho and foreign worlds, brings me some sense of peace. Knowledge is power. Dexter and Ash are candid about their emotions and actions and I feel I can share my emotions too.

So in closing, this pair also puts young fresh and handsome and chiseled and whiskery faces on our brave and strong young men. Such a tragedy to see them coming home in a box--I live near the controversial hillside of white crosses in California, the one that has more than four thousand now, one for each dead soldier. Ash says Iraqi deaths number more than 600,000 . . . Not being maudlin I didn't mean to make the pilgrimage to this cemetery but last Christmas I was alone and tired and dozed off on BART late one night only to awake at the station with a platform over the hillside of crosses. It was a religious experience for me, a sign, not just a wrong train. Indeed it was right on track.

Cindy Warner California