From Baghdad, with Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava.(Brief article)(Book review)

From Baghdad, with Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava LT. COL. JAY KOPELMAN WITH MELINDA ROTH. Lyons, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-59228-980-6

The news from Iraq keeps getting grimmer, but Iraq veteran Kopelman and journalist Roth (The Man Who Talks to Dogs) tell a tale of radiant joy about Kopelman's efforts to safely transport Lava, the stray dog his Marine unit found in the wreckage of Fallujah, back to the U.S. Though the premise sounds cloying, Kopelman and Roth eschew sentimentality. They don't hesitate to detail the corruption of the Coalition Provisional Authority and the U.S. military bureaucracy or the extreme hardships of the …