HISTORICAL CONTEXT of The Long Walk

Dr. Mark I. Choate,  Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve, has helped Utah Opera compile the following resources for online learning about the history of American military in Iraq. These resources provide historical context for Brian Castner’s memoir The Long Walk, on which Beck/Fleishmann’s opera is based.

1. BBC outline of Iraq history: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14546763
2. New York Times timeline of major events in the Iraq War:   http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/31/world/middleeast/20100831-Iraq-Timeline.html?_r=0#/#time111_3262
3. A roundtable presentation of 12 viewpoints on the topic “Is Iraq’s Mess America’s Fault?”: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/is-iraqs-mess-americas-fault-101993
4. Succinct political discussion: “Why we stuck with Maliki — and lost Iraq”:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-stuck-with-maliki–and-lost-iraq/2014/07/03/0dd6a8a4-f7ec-11e3-a606-946fd632f9f1_story.html?utm_term=.026c42f37e96