Letters from Abu Ghraib, Second Edition - Paperback

by Joshua Casteel (Author), Joseph Clair (Editor), Kristi Casteel (Editor)

Letters from Abu Ghraib, a collection of email messages sent by Joshua Casteel to his friends and family during his service as a US Army interrogator and Arabic linguist in the 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion, is the raw and intimate record of a solider in moral conflict with his duties. Once a cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point and raised in an Evangelical Christian home, Casteel finds himself stationed at Abu Ghraib prison in the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal. He is troubled by what he is asked to do there, although it is, as he writes, "miles within the bounds of what CNN and the BBC care about." Forced to confront the nature of fundamentalism, both religious and political, Casteel asks himself a fundamental question: "How should I then live?"

Author Biography

Joshua Casteel (1979-2012) received dual MFAs from the University of Iowa's programs in nonfiction and playwriting, and was a student in the University of Chicago's Divinity School at the time of his death. The author of the plays Returns and The Interrogation Room, Casteel's work was staged at London's Royal Court Theatre. His nonfiction was published in Harper's, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Point, and elsewhere. After becoming a conscientious objector, Casteel traveled nationally and internationally as an acclaimed speaker on social, political, and theological issues. He was awarded The Bishop Dingman Award from Catholic Peace Ministries and the St. Marcellus Award from Catholic Peace Fellowship for his work toward justice and peace.