📧 from Greg Barrett

Hi Logan, 

Shane forwarded me your email. I'm the journalist putting the Iraq trip together in an effort to write the book, The Gospel of Rutbah: Christians, Muslims and The Good Samaritan Story in Iraq. Your insights as a military vet could be very useful. Attached is a summary of the project. Any insights/thoughts from you are welcomed. The trip, postponed in May, is now planned for mid-January. Agent says we must find the Rutbah doctor (see proposal) before book will draw an advance. If serious about going, I would need your passport info, address and contact nos. eventually. No rush on that currently. ... Feel free to contact me w/ any questions. All best ~ greg

@ 1021

hi greg;

i cant remember when shane or jonathon first told me about this, but something kept itching in the back of my head about it, until i heard my friend was in rutbah, which apparently is now some kind of hotbed...

my history is a bit mixed, i was in combat in OIF2 (04/05) and subsequently found i couldnt continue in my role.  so iraq is not an abstract concept to me, and my hesitation in all this is that i dont know how... 'practical' i might be if i return there.  to put it another way, there will be no shortage of tears on my end.  however, i have a nagging suspicion it would be profoundly healing to go back, which is why i think i cant get it outta my head. 

my connection with shane and jonathon is pretty directly from their experience in rutbah and subsequent activity; i read jonathon's "to bagdhad and beyond" in one sitting after he gave it to me in the midst of my CO application in 2006, and shane and i go back a bit further than that, to right before i began my process.  anyway, i would be more than willing to be a part of this, as long as we are able to communicate clearly about what that could mean and how it would look on the ground (i'm real strategic like that, especially with the whole 'lets put ourselves in a combat zone' mentality).  just to give you some background, i have attached a recently completed resume that i put together for a professor who is helping me get into duke divinity school hopegfully by fall 2010. 

lemme know your thoughts on all this, i would love to be able to be of service in any way possible, whether i am able to travel myself or not.