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From Baghdad to America: Life Lessons from a Dog Named Lava
From Baghdad to America: Life Lessons from a Dog Named Lava
From Baghdad to America: Life Lessons from a Dog Named Lava
Ebook233 pages2 hours

From Baghdad to America: Life Lessons from a Dog Named Lava

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman won the hearts of readers everywhere with his moving story of adopting an abandoned puppy named Lava from a hellish corner of Iraq. He opened the door for other soldiers to bring dogs home, and in From Baghdad to America, Kopelman once again leads the pack with his observations on the emotional repercussions of war.

Here, for the first time, Kopelman holds nothing back as he responds to the question, Why did you save a dog instead of a person?” The answer reveals much about his inner demonsand about the bigger picture of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He talks about what it’s like to return to the States and examines the shocking statistics to come out of Iraq: Depression, suicide, alcohol abuse, and broken relationships are at record highs for the men and women who serve there. Kopelman credits Lava with helping him to endure combat and the pain of war, as well as helping him deal with the surprising difficulties of returning to everyday life. Civilians have a hard time understanding what being a Marine means, and the adjustment to living among them is hard for these soldiers. This book attempts to shed light on that for all readers.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSkyhorse
Release dateFeb 6, 2010
ISBN9781626366480

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jay Kopelman's FROM BAGHDAD TO AMERICA is a slight book, but it packs a powerful punch. In his first book, the bestselling FROM BAGHDAD WITH LOVE, the focus was on Lava, the dog Kopelman rescued in Iraq, and the network of animal lovers who helped him have the dog shipped back to his home in California. There was, in other words, the "warm fuzzy" feeling associated with most "dog books." That first book had a co-author, Melinda Roth, who, I suspect, had a slightly civilizing influence on the "Marine side" of Kopelman.The new book, about what happened once Kopelman got Lava - and himself - back home from the war, is not nearly so warm and fuzzy. It is all about the difficulties of readjustment to peacetime America, where the other 98% of Americans just kept on shopping, largely oblivious to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the heavy physical, mental, and emotional price being paid by our all-volunteer military. Turns out both the dog and the man have serious problems with control and anger managment. One of the book's early readers, Andrew Carroll (author of WAR LETTERS), called the book "damn funny." And there is humor here, but it is of a very hard-edged sort, laced with anger - perhaps even a barely suppressed rage. The best thing Kopelman does here is to finally admit that perhaps he does indeed have some problems, that he may be a victim himself of PTSD. The chapter "Opening the Snivel Book" is perhaps the most telling - and the most important - part of the whole book. I salute LTC Kopelman for his honesty and his courage in writing "the rest of the story," for this could well be a much more important book than his first.

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From Baghdad to America - Jay Kopelman

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