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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
An absolutely fantastic take on the second war in Iraq. The perspectives Wright provides through his close quarters, 24/7 experience with the Marines in 1st Recon gives a truly revealing look at what happened in Iraq, both good and bad. There are many, many sobering moments in the book that make even the most hawkish person question the ROE (rules of engagement), but nevertheless give a clear insight into the human and ultimately fallible aspect of war. The prose is very well written, and ranks as quite a page turner, especially for a non-fiction book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants in inside, unbiased perspective on the war.
I don't think I can properly articulate what I have learnt from this book. It showed me the reality of war, the pride, honour, and pure love those soldiers had for their country. They may not have liked the hierarchy they were bound to operate under but they did their job because that's what they knew they had to do.
I love this book, some may find that weird, as it is essentially a book about the brutalities of war. But to me, it makes those soldiers, and many others, real and relatable. It reinforces the support I have for them, not the war.
I think everyone needs to read this book, whether you initially think it's your cup of tea or not.
I love this book, some may find that weird, as it is essentially a book about the brutalities of war. But to me, it makes those soldiers, and many others, real and relatable. It reinforces the support I have for them, not the war.
I think everyone needs to read this book, whether you initially think it's your cup of tea or not.
I couldn't put it down. A great biography/account of the beginning of the Iraq war.
Great on-the-ground reporting of the Iraq War's first week. Wright occasionally tries too hard to get into the heads of the Recon Marines, but for the most part he provides an even keeled account that demonstrates how the war's early successes laid the groundwork for the quagmire that followed.
Fascinating, disturbing, heartening, and sad, all rolled into one good read!
I honestly did not expect to like this book. I initially ordered it from my library as a mistake. By misreading the book's summary, I thought I was getting a book about the impact things like Captain America has had on our current generation and their willingness or reluctance to go to war. Instead I got an inside look at the first wave of the war in Iraq.
I will admit I'm a bit biased. My husband is a vet and was actually in the same place as the men in this book for a while: an amusement park outside Baghdad. But he is not pro-war. He's a patriot, but neither of us think the war in Iraq was the right thing for America. And if we needed to go abroad at that time, we did it in entirely the wrong way.
That being said, the military jargon and connection between the men in this book was fascinating and in some ways familiar and comforting. My parents are both air force and, though it's been a long time since I was on a military base, the men reminded me of some I had known when I was a child.
It was fascinating to get a look into the opinions and trials of some of the men who were over there, among the first to go through.
The book reminds us that not all the men were raping or murdering locals, despite the pop culture image of this. And it reminds us that some men didn't like what they were doing, while others liked it too much. It's a human look at the inhumane arena of war. It's unlike anything I've read before and, while I'm not about to start reading military works as a general rule, it has inspired me to look with more humane eyes at our military members.
They aren't heroes, but they aren't monsters. They're people, as varied and nuanced as anyone in your life. The only difference is where they've been and what they've seen.
I will admit I'm a bit biased. My husband is a vet and was actually in the same place as the men in this book for a while: an amusement park outside Baghdad. But he is not pro-war. He's a patriot, but neither of us think the war in Iraq was the right thing for America. And if we needed to go abroad at that time, we did it in entirely the wrong way.
That being said, the military jargon and connection between the men in this book was fascinating and in some ways familiar and comforting. My parents are both air force and, though it's been a long time since I was on a military base, the men reminded me of some I had known when I was a child.
It was fascinating to get a look into the opinions and trials of some of the men who were over there, among the first to go through.
The book reminds us that not all the men were raping or murdering locals, despite the pop culture image of this. And it reminds us that some men didn't like what they were doing, while others liked it too much. It's a human look at the inhumane arena of war. It's unlike anything I've read before and, while I'm not about to start reading military works as a general rule, it has inspired me to look with more humane eyes at our military members.
They aren't heroes, but they aren't monsters. They're people, as varied and nuanced as anyone in your life. The only difference is where they've been and what they've seen.
3,5 stars, rounded down to 3.
Admittedly, this is a low rating for a book that could hold my attention pretty well while reading it and how I’m still thinking about it afterwards. There is a reasons for this:
Compared to other literature about the horrors of war, this one was an eyewitness report. The author went into Iraq with those Recon Marine Battalions and spent two months together with them, living through everything they did, except the killing parts. The author tried to hold back judgment by sticking to the core work of a good reporter (the Egon Erwin Kisch definition of one): by reporting what he saw, what the Marines were thinking and by adorning all that with quotes about how each individual man got into the Marine corps and where he was from. So this is a report that turned into a book. The author slips at times, because he was - understandably- horrified to be shot or bombed at. His fear broke the journalist’s mask at times and those were actually the best parts of the book (to me).
If you read Nothing New on the Western Front or Slaughterhouse Five or any other fictional book on war, the reader needs to make up their own mind about the gruesome world presented. In those fictional worlds we see the story unfold as someone who stands outside, who only tries to comprehend its horrors. Here it’s different, you are right in the middle of things together with the author.
But, I’m not even sure if this was the author’s intention (showing the horrors of war). Maybe it was more a laudatory book about the US army’s Marines, or - worse - a vindication of the US waging war on other countries’ soil with a pretext of ‘killing the bad guy’ while actually being there for oil (Iraq) or to redo their own mistakes (Afghanistan, look up who funded the Mujahideen for decades to piss off the Russians if you think I’m exaggerating).
Well, I really couldn’t tell from reading what was the intention of this book, except for it to be a report about a war. Maybe that is enough intention for you, but it was unsatisfactory to me.
Another thing that really rubbed me the wrong way, was the incompetence shown. Of course that’s not the books fault, but I found it mind-boggling. Maybe every army unit has to deal with as many idiots in their chain-of-command, like this one did (I hope not btw), but it made me sick to my stomach to read about Marines, who didn’t know their own rules or acted against all logic and reason. I was asking myself why these guys didn’t have proper attire or machine gun oil, when at the same time bombs worth so much money were rained down on palm trees because someone thought to have seen something suspicious. In the end all those guys weren’t reprimanded for real, no, they were promoted.
I read this book to get more insights into the story shown in the tv mini series, but that didn’t happen. The author mostly hid himself throughout the book, except for the epilogue and some of the most terrifying moments—and even those rare glimpses of him didn’t give me any clue about his opinion on the whole thing.
All in all it wasn’t the book I thought it would be (which is my own fault for not reading any reviews not to spoil myself beforehand). It wasn’t a glorifying or a condemning book about a war, it was mostly a report, and that was disappointing to me.
Admittedly, this is a low rating for a book that could hold my attention pretty well while reading it and how I’m still thinking about it afterwards. There is a reasons for this:
Compared to other literature about the horrors of war, this one was an eyewitness report. The author went into Iraq with those Recon Marine Battalions and spent two months together with them, living through everything they did, except the killing parts. The author tried to hold back judgment by sticking to the core work of a good reporter (the Egon Erwin Kisch definition of one): by reporting what he saw, what the Marines were thinking and by adorning all that with quotes about how each individual man got into the Marine corps and where he was from. So this is a report that turned into a book. The author slips at times, because he was - understandably- horrified to be shot or bombed at. His fear broke the journalist’s mask at times and those were actually the best parts of the book (to me).
If you read Nothing New on the Western Front or Slaughterhouse Five or any other fictional book on war, the reader needs to make up their own mind about the gruesome world presented. In those fictional worlds we see the story unfold as someone who stands outside, who only tries to comprehend its horrors. Here it’s different, you are right in the middle of things together with the author.
But, I’m not even sure if this was the author’s intention (showing the horrors of war). Maybe it was more a laudatory book about the US army’s Marines, or - worse - a vindication of the US waging war on other countries’ soil with a pretext of ‘killing the bad guy’ while actually being there for oil (Iraq) or to redo their own mistakes (Afghanistan, look up who funded the Mujahideen for decades to piss off the Russians if you think I’m exaggerating).
Well, I really couldn’t tell from reading what was the intention of this book, except for it to be a report about a war. Maybe that is enough intention for you, but it was unsatisfactory to me.
Another thing that really rubbed me the wrong way, was the incompetence shown. Of course that’s not the books fault, but I found it mind-boggling. Maybe every army unit has to deal with as many idiots in their chain-of-command, like this one did (I hope not btw), but it made me sick to my stomach to read about Marines, who didn’t know their own rules or acted against all logic and reason. I was asking myself why these guys didn’t have proper attire or machine gun oil, when at the same time bombs worth so much money were rained down on palm trees because someone thought to have seen something suspicious. In the end all those guys weren’t reprimanded for real, no, they were promoted.
I read this book to get more insights into the story shown in the tv mini series, but that didn’t happen. The author mostly hid himself throughout the book, except for the epilogue and some of the most terrifying moments—and even those rare glimpses of him didn’t give me any clue about his opinion on the whole thing.
All in all it wasn’t the book I thought it would be (which is my own fault for not reading any reviews not to spoil myself beforehand). It wasn’t a glorifying or a condemning book about a war, it was mostly a report, and that was disappointing to me.
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Pouring down hate and discontent like a motherfucker.