some that i made up and some that exist this is for jessica lynch, war memories. i have forgotten myself. who i was, i cannot now know who i have become is a stranger i have forgotten myself there are other things to lose in battle eyes and guts, other sacrifices before life. vilost myself. i am not who i was before this war, i am not she who no longer dares to be my mother is so happy with this worn body returned home. we pretend that i am as whole as i look. but at night when i stair through the dark at the hidden image in the mirror i cannot lie to the stranger i see. i have forgotten everything. except my affection for children, my service to country and my insatiable fear. [applause] >> sizing up the cost of war. >> what is left but the shoes. shoes scuffed and torn, no longer having feet to carry them, shoes empty now. work boots bearing mud from the last field he had plowed with his father. empty now. red sneakers with white stripes brought back fwr america by her oldest son given to her youngest, both of them immediately rung outside kicking the soccer bal

this is about the time when jessica lynch was captured in iraq and that was a huge story and there were people rallying around her and, you know, over the course of time, you've seen a lot of cases where there have been americans held hostage and jimmy carter is on a plane, and, you know, people are doing something. and in this case, nothing was being done. we'll tell the story from the beginning. we were convinced that, you know, the story had to be told. so we had followed it. at the same time, and many of you here work in latin american issues, it's very hard to get the u.s. media audience excited about columbia. how do you tell a story like that? so the story became -- we became aware in about 2006 when simone trinidad, a guerrilla was captured, he was accused of being part of the hostage taking. he was a mid-level commander, higher than the mid level. he was charged with the conspiracy to commit hostage taking. who came to be part of that trial but our former colleague jorge enrique botero. at this point, karin and i realized we had been working on the case, we had an fbi agent, st

i mean, this is about the time when jessica lynch was captured in iraq, and that was a huge story and people rallying around here, and you know, over the course of time, you've seen 5 lot of cases where there have been americans held hostage and jimmy carter is on a plane, and you know, people are doing something, but in this case, nothing was being done. we followed the story from the beginning, and we were convinced that the story had to be told. we followed it, but at the same time, and many of you here working in american issues, it's very hard to get a u.s. media audience excited about columbia. how do you tell a story like that? so the story -- we became aware in about 2006 when simone trinidad was captured accused of being part of the hostage taken of the three americans, and he was brought to the u.s.. he was captured and brought to the u.s. charged with conspiracy to commit hostage taken and who came to be a part of that trial was botero, and it at this point we realized we had been working on this case, and we had an fbi agent as a character, a state department prosecutor, a

the american republic will never know, jessica lynch being captured, and the bad things that happened. but the tails of heroism has been been related to the american public. he said, i'll publish it. i'm grateful that he did that. >> host: the book is laid out chronologically. it profiles several of the generals. as congressman was saying, it profiles different soldiers who participated. two more phone calls left. new york, liz, independent line. go ahead. >> caller: good morning. first i'd like to say thank you to all of our veterans. they have kept our safe for hundreds of years and continue to do so today. my father was a veteran of world war ii, my husband vietnam. i have waited years to talk to you about this. i live in upstate new york. i was down in new york city at a meeting three weeks after 9/11. i'm well aware of the devastation that was caused. i've always considered the afghan area a legitimate war. my question, i guess, is why did you turn your back on it and go to iraq? there's plenties of countries in this world that we don't agree with, that massacre their people. we