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Articles

The First Servant In Iraq

Douglas Gearhart says there are 1001 stories from Iraq.

“It is exceedingly unlikely that I shall ever be able to understand the why and wherefore of war … The deepest fear of my war years, one still with me, is that these happenings had no real purpose.”
J. Glenn Gray, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle, 1970, p.24

One of my literary heroes, from Shakespeare’s King Lear, is on the stage (or the page) for only one scene (Act 3, Scene 7). The text calls him ‘First Servant’, and in the grand scheme of the play he is a cog, or a mere functionary, speaking no more than a few lines of dialogue.

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