America’s War Narrative Focuses on Its Soldiers. Afghans and Iraqis Are Brushed Aside.

THE YOUNG NEWSPAPER reporter wanted to write a book about the war he was covering. But the editors who read his proposal turned it down, all of them. They said the book wouldn’t sell because Americans were tired of reading about these violent foreigners and their centuries-old grudges. The reporter asked for advice from a colleague who had far more experience with these things. Focus the book on someone your readers will connect with, he was told.