![]() ![]() Instead, they began plotting Lava's escape - and found a bit of salvation in a soul-numbing war. Their job, Kopelman writes, was to "shoot the enemy, period, and if anything close to compassion rears its ugly head, you better shoot that down, too." But Kopelman and his battle-mates could not bear to kill the puppy or abandon him in a place where dogs survive by gnawing at corpses. But soon Lava won over his unit, reducing "elite, well-oiled machines of war" to baby talk. It is a provocative examination of an issue that resonates deeply in the wake of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay: Do "softer" values, such as mercy for the weak, sabotage military morale or strengthen it?Īt Kopelman and Lava's first meeting, the exhausted, trigger-happy Marine glimpsed a ball of fur and instinctively reached for his rifle. ![]() Kopelman's tale is not just a seasonal heart-warmer. But an array of conspirators, from veterinarians to journalists, helped deliver Lava to safety. In his year-long mission to spirit the dog to America, Kopelman encountered a thicket of military and logistical obstacles. Back at the command post, Kopelman fell for the pup, now named Lava. The pair met after a Marine patrol checked out an empty house in Fallujah and found not an insurgent but a helpless mutt. Jay Kopelman, a Marine in a hellish corner of Iraq, decided to adopt an abandoned puppy, he was breaking every rule in the book. War turns decent men into unflinching killers and compassion into a liability. ![]()
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