The middle east connection

I feel like both essays did an exceptionally good job at showing the brutality and horror that the middle eastern people have suffered either directly or indirectly from U.S occupation. The graphic details from both authors like the child's ears melted off to the soldiers barbecued in their own Humvee's. Both were pretty bleak, the attempt at humor in Two Shallow Graves didn't seem funny as much as it did a coping mechanism for the soldier to deal with the horrors and  risks he faced at war. Professor Talbird you must be correct about my cynicism because i actually enjoyed these bleak tragedies over the other essays.