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They were called a generation without heroes. Then they were called upon to be heroes. Within hours of 9/11, America's war on terrorism fell to those like the twenty-three Marines of the First Recon Battalion, the first generation dispatched into open-ended combat since Vietnam. They were a new breed of American warrior unrecognizable to their forebears-soldiers raised on hip-hop, Internet porn, Marilyn Manson, video games, and The Real World, a band of born-again Christians, dopers, Buddhists, and New Agers who gleaned their precepts from kung fu movies and Oprah Winfrey. Cocky, brave, headstrong, wary, and mostly unprepared for the physical, emotional, and moral horrors ahead, the "First Suicide Battalion" would spearhead the blitzkrieg on Iraq and fight against the hardest resistance Saddam had to offer.Generation Kill is the funny, frightening, and profane firsthand account of these remarkable men, of the personal toll of victory, and of the randomness, brutality, and camaraderie of a new American war.… (more)
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Their world (and the US military) is held together by sergeants who train, educate and integrate and micro-manage both their charges, the enlisted men and the officers. As this book drastically shows, the US military has lost the "war for talents". While the military is still an attractive career option for enlisted men from America's underprivileged areas, good officers are in short supply - and the best are pushed out of the system while the worst tend to be promoted. An organization with a lot of brawn but little brain.
The book is filled with examples where a little thought could have vastly improved the (often deadly) outcome. Due to different encryption tools, East Coast marines are unable to communicate with West Coast marines (apart from the fact of limited abilities to communicate with the Air force, US army and their allies which often leads to friendly fire among the trigger-happy US forces) - easily solvable by a relay. Their guns jam because they lack lubricants (to be expected in a desert environment), they cannot use their night-vision goggles because they are short of batteries, ...
On a grander level, the lack of planning and imagination has devastating consequences for the Iraqi people who are subjected to a wide range of US violence, from negligence to abuse to unnecessary cruelty to outright war crimes. A complicit hierarchy creates a climate for war crimes, neglects to investigate or charge offenders (who in this unit are even promoted despite showing horrible lapses of leadership and even military skill, the Peter principle on steroids). The platoon psycho is christened "Whopper BK" (baby killer for his unnecessary shooting of a child). Having his killer instincts honed in the marine corps, readers will note that this individual has joined the LAPD, another institution with a fine human rights track record. Incidents such as the Haditha killings show similar lack of leadership, integrity and responsibility. The US military in all its branches is in severe need of rebuilding.
The book also shows how the marines were good at breaking things, but lacked the tools, understanding and resources to restore order and civilization after the mayhem they inflicted. Time and time again, the reporter notes that the Iraqis welcomed the Americans (despite their violent appearance) but were turned away and left alone with their problems. A number of heroic individuals were unable to prevail against the incompetent Bush administration, the military brass and bureaucratic shortsighted meanness, In a fair world, those responsible would be punished. This book exposes the ugly side of America. The mini-series and the book deserve a wide audience, so that what happened is not pushed down the memory hole.
Review: This is going to be one of those book reviews that shades into a movie review, despite my best efforts to keep them separate. In part, that's because the book and the film version are very, very similar, primarily due to the fact that the miniseries stays remarkably true to the book not only in story but also in terms of characterization, message, and general tone. In a lot of ways, they compliment each other, since the book can provide background details that can't be readily explained on film, and the film can provide visuals for those of us who don't have the military knowledge to be able to picture various types of weapons from their written description. But they're also both complete and perfectly understandable on their own.
Together or apart, they paint a really compelling picture of the current state of warfare, and of the people and personalities involved. I'm not a current-events junkie by any stretch of the imagination, but I know well enough that Generation Kill gives a (literal) on-the-ground look at some of the reality of the Iraq war that gets lost in the translation to a 30-second news clip. It's easy to sit at home and bemoan the number of civilian casualties or the cost of the war, but this book makes you take a hard look at what it's like in the moment, in situations most of us could never imagine. I do wish Wright had given us a little bit more of his first-person outsider's POV, though. There were certainly touches of it, and I found them particularly fascinating (and often quite funny, for example the story of him running in a zig-zag pattern to avoid sniper fire, to the consternation and amusement of the soldiers he was with).
What I appreciated most about Generation Kill was that it gives a very clear picture of the soldiers of the First Recon Marines as real people. They're obnoxious and crude and thoroughly un-PC, but there's a very clear sense that they are pretty much just regular guys, dealing with the situation and the constant danger and the lack of sleep and the surges of adrenaline and the randomness of war however they can. Wright doesn't do a whole lot of political analysis or authorial pontificating, for the most point preferring to let the story speak for itself, but his respect for the men he rode with (if not for their commanders) comes across loud and clear... and I think will be unavoidably contagious to his readers. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Hard to say, since I don't usually care for politics/current events/war books (Emergency Sex excepted), but I quite enjoyed this. Really, I'd recommend it for just about everyone who has an opinion of any kind about the war and/or wants an inside look into what the war was like for the men who actually fought it.
That being said, I realized halfway through why I was so engaged in this book that told the story from the perspective of those who often don't have the voice in writing their version of history...the enlisted personnel.... It's an anthropological work. At it's heart, cultural anthropology is the study of human beings in groups -- and the conflict resolution, social structure, behaviors, etc captured by Wright (the observer who had to gain the trust of the First Recon Marines to gain this invaluable perspective) does a tremendous job in capturing the unique culture of Recon Marines and the cross cut of individuals who compromise today's "volunteer" armed forces.
In the era of CNN and "real time" images of air strikes it's easy to forget that the "job of war" still falls on those on the ground...and while the equipment has evolved, it's easy to forget how much the grunts on the ground handling the mortar rounds, rules of engagement, and mine fields operate in a unique sphere that is quite alien to the average civilian's perception of modern warfare.
Wright earns my kudos for capturing the voices and the reality of these Marines. This is not an anti-war or a pro-war book. It is a snapshot. One person's account of the beginning of the war...when weapons of mass destruction were still thought to be a real possibility...when Iraq was thought to be a quick campaign.... And, for this reader, my eyes were opened a little wider than they already were to: the incompetencies at the top of the chain that hindered those carrying out orders at the bottom; the realities of what rules of engagement mean and what those who must carry out those rules must grapple with; the civilian toll that is often glossed over; and how much of modern warfare is still fought with mortar rounds versus air strikes.
A final general observation -- I don't know what waivers and liabilities were involved with the publication of this book. I'm not sure who received pseudonyms under what agreements, but I find it a sad reflection that all of the enlisted men had their names used, in essence, standing by their actions while those junior officers whose actions were disconcerting at best, despicable at worse were given the virtue of anonymity.
This gut-wrenching account of war and all its realities is a required read for those of us who observe war in the comfort of our living rooms -- it puts a face on modern warfare and a voice to the grunts who deserve their stories to be told, too.
For the most part, though, they were men doing an extremely tough job to whom I would entrust my life.
My first contact with Generation Kill was
What this book does so well is that Wright doesn't take sides (as much as that is humanly possible), he merely reports the goings-on around him as he travels with team one of 1st Recon second platoon. He's equally frank about the marines' having doubts when the ROE say that every human being is an enemy, as he is frank relating the darker, more disturbing traits of some of the men.
Perhaps the only 'fault' of this book is that it's so well written, has such compelling characters and fast paced plot that sometimes, as readers, we forget that it's not fiction. Reading it as fiction would certainly take away form its value and importance.
Worth re-reading.
I'll confess that the only reason I read this the first time was because I got it for free, and the only reasons I read it the second time were for my book club (although almost no one else bothered) and to prepare for the HBO miniseries. But it was a better read than I remembered. Maybe it's just that the progression of years has made the book's message even more powerful.