Breaking Ranksbrings a new and deeply personal perspective to the war in Iraq by looking into the lives of six veterans who turned against the war they helped to fight. Based on extensive interviews with each of the six, the book relates, often in their own words, why they enlisted, their experiences in training and in early missions, their tours of combat, and what has happened to them since returning home. The compelling stories of this diverse cross section of the military recount how each journey to Iraq began with the sincere desire to do good. Matthew Gutmann and Catherine Anne Lutz show how each individual's experiences led to new moral and political understandings and ultimately to opposing the war.Breaking Ranksoffers a powerful critique that grounds and amplifies voices from the civilian antiwar movement. By bearing witness to what these veterans experienced and the courage it took for each to speak out, the book casts a fresh eye on a war that Americans have watched for more than seven years but about which they have understood too little.