false 5 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 05:57:19 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 08:19:13 -0800 2009
I loved this book. So. Much. The soldiers are so crude, unhesitating and all too willing to fling the foulest, rudest, nastiest insults at each other - and yet it's still clear that, even if they were all the sorts of people who'd hate each other if they were civilians, as marines they loved and would die for each other at the drop of a hat. It felt strangely inspiring, reading their experiences, even as the socially polite part of my brain winced.

It helped, also, that because the reporter was placed in the first car, we were able to get a focal point to constantly return to in a sea of unfamiliar names and places.

The book is peppered with explanations for all the unfamiliar technical terms and lingo, but they're presented in such a manner that they didn't feel dumbed down. I didn't notice much of a leftist or conservative slant. I felt like the writer was doing his best to simply write what he saw and felt as it happened - the good, the bad, the hilarious. He could have left it at that - with the myopic, claustrophobic filter of being trapped in a humvee with no space and no information and terrible communication - but he did go back for additional information to clarify why certain maneuvers had been ordered, even as he makes the point that at the time, no one at their level had been told any of this. The additional information was much appreciated and really put everything into perspective.

I liked that he was not above mocking his own weakness in comparison to these other, far more fit and capable men, and included several humiliating episodes where he clearly showed his weak civilian ways.

I am told that an earlier addition of Gen Kill doesn't have the afterwards where he talks about where the soldiers are now? If that's the case, I'd recommend making sure you're buying a newer edition. ]]>