'Outside the Wire' offers frontline view of war
Updated Tue. Jan. 15 2008 6:40 AM ET
Andy Johnson, CTV.ca News
At times heartbreaking, shocking, uplifting and tragic, "Outside the Wire: The war in Afghanistan in the words of its participants" collects the stories of troops, aid workers and medical personnel who have spent time on the battlegrounds.
Kevin Patterson's new book takes a first-person, frontline look at the war in Afghanistan through a collection of stories, journal entries and essays written by people on the ground.
Patterson, a doctor who spent seven weeks practicing in Afghanistan, says the goal is to raise Canadians' collective knowledge of the war zone that has now claimed the lives of 76 soldiers and one diplomat.
"It's 12,000 miles away, it's a long ways away and it doesn't have a lot of historic involvement with Canada. It's not a place Canadians have spent a lot of time in as a nation, and so I think the place baffles most of us," he says in an interview with CTV.ca
Patterson tackles this problem with stories that bypass through military spin and getting directly at the experiences of frontline workers -- in their own words.
"As soon as you remove the interface and give them the opportunity to just put it down, you get unmediated reports."
Those reports include a collection of touching, heartbreaking letters Capt. Nichola Goddard sent home before she was killed, offering a new insight into who she was.
"I don't want you to feel that I'm depressed or defeated, far from it. The longer that we are in theatre and the more we interact with the Afghan people the more I feel that we are serving a purpose here," Goddard, Canada's first female war casualty, wrote in an entry that visibly moves Patterson when he recounts it.
"When you read them, you just can't help but be struck by grief at the nation's loss. I mean, she was amazing. Her wit and humor and humility come through so clearly in those letters. She would have been the sort of person I would have liked to have seen in charge of the military in another 20 years," he told Canada AM.
'We owe Afghans'
Cpl. Ryan Pagnacco's description of playing his bagpipes while his battle group engaged the enemy -- just prior to being injured in a friendly fire incident - also represents the type of story that rarely comes through in media reports.
"The sound of the pipes echoed cross the valley, broken only by the sound of the 25s firing. The troops watched, took pictures, and cheered after each tune. Even the U.S. and ANA (Afghan National Army) soldiers watched, and some took pictures as well. This was the first time I had played my pipes in Afghanistan," Pagnacco writes in his straightforward, honest entry that concludes with him recovering at home in Canada.
By collecting these honest, genuine stories, Patterson says he hopes to help Canadians make educated decisions about the war and Canada's involvement in it -- and to move beyond traditional views of the war based on the political party they support.
"We owe Afghans and we owe our troops an intelligent debate," he says.
Inspired by experience
It was during his time practicing medicine in Afghanistan last year, treating some of Canada's casualties, that he began soliciting stories and speaking with people, doing the groundwork for the book.
It was also during his stint in Afghanistan that he began to take a hard look at the work Canada's soldiers are doing there and questioning whether the sacrifice is worthwhile.
He's still in the process of trying to decide where he stands on that question, but the process of editing the book has helped him approach a conclusion, he said.
"The anxiety I feel about that is sharper," Patterson said.
"And I don't know what's going to happen there. There's nothing certain or for sure about Afghanistan, but you can't just play games you know you're going to win."
Patterson co-edited the book with Jane Warren, a Toronto-based writer.
