Firdos Square

It is an image seared in the minds of war-ready and war-weary Americans alike. Just weeks after the invasion of Iraq, American armored vehicles bore down on Firdos Square in downtown Baghdad, where an emboldened man had already taken a sledgehammer to the base of a statue of Saddam Hussein.

US Lieutenant Timothy McLaughlin's Iraq diary is not an introspective journal, but 10 years after the invasion its terse, staccato account of a young man's war holds a powerful charge.

It is an image seared in the minds of war-ready and war-weary Americans alike. Just weeks after the invasion of Iraq, American armored vehicles bore down on Firdos Square in downtown Baghdad, where an emboldened man had already taken a sledgehammer to the base of a statue of Saddam Hussein.

US Lieutenant Timothy McLaughlin's Iraq diary is not an introspective journal, but 10 years after the invasion its terse, staccato account of a young man's war holds a powerful charge.