false 16 239 186 true 5647395 read 4 true 4466229 currently-reading 49 true 4466228 to-read 40 false 7241744 wishlist 1 false 7015379 first-reads http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/27145-which-idea-do-you-like-best-for-a-down-page-to-visit-links-look-in-the Don voted on the poll: Which Idea do you like best for a down page? (To visit links look in the comments!)
take the poll » ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81125652 The Master and Margarita (Paperback) by Mikhail Bulgakov
bookshelves: to-read, wishlist
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81125572 Snow (Paperback) by Orhan Pamuk
bookshelves: to-read, wishlist
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81023396 The Americans (Hardcover) by Robert Frank
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78590886 to: Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War (Audio CD) by Evan Wright
Disclaimer: I'm a virulent peacenik who believes the only just US military actions in the past 50 years were Bosnia and the initial Afghanistan liberation, and both for the same reason—stopping totalitarian genocide (Afghani misogynistic tyranny). I believe we use the military career as a means to pacify our permanent underclass—their only hope for the true opportunity we won't give them otherwise. I am so radical that I believe we should reduce our military by 60%.

I listened to this book because I love exposing myself to honest, intellectual, factually expressed contrary opinions—or at least opportunities to challenge my set attitudes. This book did challenge my thinking, but the author did not strike me as virulently in favor of military action; so, it may have been a bit of preaching to the choir. He was, however, far more sympathetic than I.

The author embedded with the very tip of the spear during the invasion of Iraq: a Marines recon division. He sat crammed into unarmored Humvees during purposely triggered ambushes, laid in ranger graves during artillery strikes, and otherwise exposed himself to all the dangers of one of the most risked units in order to get the full, ground truth. He lashes out at command incompetence, technical and equipment failures, failure to train for the mission, and communication failures. It's a very good book, well written, providing tangible experience of fear, anger, testosterone laden "get some", and regret.

It's quite clear that the soldiers are fairly cynical about their purpose. They don't buy the agitprop WMD nor liberation arguments, although they do fear nerve gas. Nevertheless, they want to "get some". They want to "fuck up" buildings, people, and machines sometimes regardless of whether these are military targets or not. They've been taught to be killing machines and that's what they want to do. They've been taught to follow commands without question and, for the most part, that's what they do. The only commands they don't follow are from the incompetent, irrational commander standing right in front of them who's repeatedly and just immediately done another knuckle-headed, fear-based overly hostile act. They do passive-aggressively delay on following another command.

I was fairly depressed hearing this killing machine, cynical, fungible cog attitude which seems so contrary to our privileged middle-class sense of self-determination. There was also a sense of spreading the American way of life as a noble cause with very little self-criticism of the culture.

The book sympathetically relays the soldiers' macho psychological and motivational immature survival strategies of mutual hazing interleaved with true sympathy. It's definitely worth listening too and perhaps reading. It didn't change my attitude but I don't think it would change a hawk's attitude either unless the hawk were totally naive about war. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80857947 The Book of Job (Paperback) by Stephen Mitchell
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80854989 Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda (Paperback) by Pablo Neruda
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80746395 The New Valley (Hardcover) by Josh Weil
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]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80746310 Genealogy: A Novel (P.S.) by Maud Casey
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]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80444539 How to Leave Hialeah (Iowa Short Fiction Award) by Jennine Capo Crucet
bookshelves: to-read, wishlist
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