Summary

Chapter 13

Birdy and the others are struck by how weird things are in Baghdad. Someone buys onions, while someone is killed down the street. Coles tells the people in his unit that some Sunnis were found dead in a garage. They had been bound and killed execution-style. Something isn’t right about it, he says. Some engineers explain that some Iraqis have been found dead near the power plants north of Baghdad. Coles asks Birdy what he thinks of war. Birdy says he doesn’t like war. Coles says war teaches people things. He has learned just how much he loves his family, for example. Birdy wonders if the people killing Sunnis are the mostly-Shiite Iraqi police force members. Birdy reflects on how he is now willing to kill to stay alive.

Chapter 14

Hamid Faisal Al-Sadah, a tribal leader, says the Coalition forces...