Into the valley of Death - Anna

Both the Illiad and Into the Valley of Death give the reader some insight into wars happening far from the reader.  For us the Illiad takes place in the far distant past, which joined with the fact that the language and style of writing is so different than what we are used to, can allow us to read the text without taking in what is actually happening. If we take the time to really read it, the text tells us, often in R rated detail, about the grusome deaths of men. And not just about their deaths, but we are frequently given their lineage, hometown. etc. While it can be dull as modern readers, the poem makes it clear that these are individuals. We see some of their friendships and camaraderie in groups such as The Ajaxes and Gloucos and Sarpeidon. They are men with homes and families who should not be forgotten because their fight was far from their homes. 
 Into the Valley of Death gives us a chance to look at the lives of some of our own soldiers. The fact that they fight so far from home and we hear little of their day to day lives makes it easier to think about "the war" and "the army" in very general terms. This article gave us an up close view of these men's lives. It gave us their names and their faces. It makes the point that the war in Afghanistan is not a general happening, but that it a daily struggle for individuals who deserve to be known in the same way the soldiers in the Illiad did.
These texts give us not just some broad experiences, which both stories certainly offer, but they personalize the wars. They bring home the idea that these are not just faceless ideas, wars, but they were and are fought by individuals bound into tight knit groups. 

Comment:  Anna makes some excellent points-- the shockingly gruesome nature of the deaths in the Iliad, which it is easy for us to ignore because of the distance created by the print medium and archaic language, and the way the Iliad tries to individualize them and commemorate them so that their lives are honored, not wasted.  The photos in Junger's reporting operate much like the mini-biographies Homer provides for the many fighters who are introduced only at the moment of death.