What Wars Leave Behind: The Faceless and the Forgotten

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They bear labels instead of names—noncombatant, unintended victim, collateral damage. These are the blurred faces seen in news footage, left behind to cope amid the wreckage as soldiers, media, and profiteers move on. In this work, J. Malcolm Garcia reveals the people and pain behind the statistics, sharing stories of impoverished families in Cairo’s city of the dead, ordinary Syrians amid explosions, and others caught in enduring conflicts. Garcia describes his travels through hotspots in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, presenting a series of personal essays that read like short stories. He exposes the chaos of war and the shortcomings of good intentions, tracing their impact on lives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Kosovo, Chad, and Syria. Amidst the devastation, he uncovers remarkable resilience among those struggling to survive each day. With gritty detail gained from immersing himself in other cultures, Garcia shares his experiences—eating local food, drinking tea, and enduring oppressive heat. These narratives illustrate how a middle-class man from the Midwest, equipped with a social work degree, learned to engage with and embrace the cultures of conflict-ridden Third World countries, ultimately living to tell the tale.