US troops who criticised Iraq war strategy killed in Baghdad
· Soldiers' article claimed Bush's policy was total failure
· Deaths reported on eve of presidential address
Thursday September 13, 2007
Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian:
Two US soldiers who helped write a critique from the front saying America had "failed on every promise" in the war have been killed in Iraq, it was reported yesterday.
Staff Sergeant Yance Gray, 26, and Sergeant Omar Mora, 28, were among a group of seven soldiers serving in Iraq who wrote a piece excoriating America's conduct of the war. The piece was published in the New York Times last month.
The men were killed in Baghdad when the cargo truck in which they were riding rolled over, the Associated Press and local news outlets reported yesterday. The Pentagon had yet to confirm their deaths early yesterday.
The criticism caused a flurry of public debate because of the candour with which the men, all serving in the 82nd Airborne, described the situation in Iraq.
There was also speculation they could face severe penalties for being so openly critical of the war. Another US soldier, Private Scott Beauchamp, who wrote a shocking account in New Republic magazine about a soldier treating a piece of a child's skull as a souvenir, had his mobile phone and laptop confiscated.
Read the rest of the sad news here.
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From August 2004 through May 2005, Erin served with City Year Chicago, an Americorps program. As a Senior Corps member, she co-led a team of literacy tutors at an elementary school on the West side of Chicago.
Erin graduated with departmental honors and a degree in English from Webster University in May 2004.
