Generation Kill by Evan Wright Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Generation Kill
Book Review: A human story in a time of war
Summary: 5 Stars
Having read Evan Wright's original Rolling Stone series "The Killer Elite" last summer I could not wait for this book to hit the shelves - and I wasn't disappointed. Mr Wright takes the reader into the true heart of darkness that exists in any combat situation - the dirt and bullets, the long spells of ennui punctuated by the teeth-chattering adrenaline rush when facing enemy fire - but adds to this the human face of the soldiers involved. This is the real beauty of the book, when Wright describes the men of 1st Recon with whom he rode shotgun. They are fleshed out beings, not mere cyphers, with all the grace and failing of any of us, and I found it impossible not to empathise with them at certain times throughout the book. Wright also avoids depicting a one-sided view of this conflict - one particular incident, involving a young Bedouin shepherd and a possibly fatal gunshot wound, stuck in my mind for weeks after I read it.I enjoyed this book above the many others I've read about the war in Iraq for the very reasons I've outlined above - a beautifully descriptive narrative which places the reader smack-bang in the Humvee along with the team; and characters - no, real people (Person, Espera, Fick, Garza and Colbert - gentlemen, it was an honour to make your acquaintance) whose humanity in a warzone has stayed with me ever since.
Book Review: Combat Simulation
Summary: 5 Stars
A friend offered me this book and I initially viewed it with the scepticism of a well read soldier who was in Iraq with the Marine Expeditionary Force and who, on more than one occasion, met some of the officers and soldiers mentioned in the book. Many books of this type are written by 'observers' of the actions, and never catch the feeling of its characters.Once picked up I had finished the book inside two days. It is a gripping read that offers the most personal and accurate account of modern warfare I have ever read.
I was honoured to have been able to serve with the US Marines in Iraq and look forward to working closely again in the future.
Book Review: Outstanding War Reportage
Summary: 5 Stars
If in relation to the two Gulf Conflicts, you were left feeling the news coverage (TV and media) and subsequent "military history" copy was too removed from what actually happened on the ground and the few personal stories by actual combatants either were too much ex-SAS adult Boys Own stories or when they were honest depictions of the experience(notably "Jarhead"), were limited in helping you understand the wider context in which events unfolded at the front, then this book is likely to answer your prayers.The writer was a US journalist on assigment from the unlikely source of Rolling Stone magazine sent to the Gulf before the most recent Conflict occurred. He was allowed to be a full team member of a platoon of the elite US Marine Reconnaissance Group from the beginning to the end of the fighting (for reasons that are not fully explained given his non-combatant experience and the personal risks he would face). This unit was used by the US military command to operate as a mobile Humvee motorised group and continually probe forward of US lines to identify Iraqi military defences and engage them in firefights as the main US forces advanced to Baghdad. This in itself was a role reversal for an elite unit trained as the name implies to operate like the SAS and usually observe in secret enemy positions and only engage in fighting when deemed necessary (which had been their immediately preceding role in Afghanistan).
This book is outstanding for many reasons, including:
1. It is extremely well written by a correspondent who both observed and recorded the many different elements and forces at play, and is thus not just a record of what he saw. In so doing, he succeeds in conveying what it was like to be in the front line in this Conflict.
2. By being a constant passenger in the Platoon Leader's Humvee he saw how the fighting affected the team members plus can provide a unique insight of how command chains operate and decisions get made in the rapid unfolding of such mobile conflicts. Prime targets are the poor ground radio telecommunications systems (despite the hi-tech gloss given to the war in formal military briefings) and a number of more senior staff who for obvious reasons to any reader are referred to by nickname only!
3. He objectively covers the endless military errors and mistakes from chickens imported to detect chemical attacks but who all die in the first sand storms before the fighting started to poor equipment supplies (lubricant for the Humvees main guns given the constant sandstorms faced making them inoperable at several critical times and batteries for the body heat scanning detectors, which all upped the risks for the platoon in fighting) plus the experience of "friendly fire" (both US airforce and artillery) and the CIA's botched effort at using a sponsored Iraqi emigre army sadly reminiscent of the Bay of Pigs.
4. Given how events have unfolded in Iraq (and elsewhere) since this conflict ended, the book shows a number of warning signs that were ignored from the start of the war - the continual disappearing of the Iraqi army into civilians dress whenever they are attacked, with little attempt made to capture them; the main fighting being with foreign Jihad volunteers as a result (with little attempt from the start to try and identify and isolate them as they moved freely around the country) and the immediate collapse of order and ensuing anarchy and domestic violence as the Saddam regime infrastructure was removed at each town and village level.
While not an enjoyable or pleasant story, I have not read such an outstanding example of front line war reportage since Michael Herr's "Despatches" on Vietnam - I hope the book enjoys great success and recognition for its achievements as a result.
Book Review: A bloody tale of invasion
Summary: 3 Stars
Trigger-happy U.S marines invade Iraq with their own mascot-like embedded reporter. An engrossing read but can can only back-up ones suspicions about this war - young, naive and candy/ephedrine-fuelled U.S soldiers realize how much death and sorrow they can actually cause while trying to contain sadistic commanding officers and sunday drivers. The best bit? private such-an-such quoting the communist manifesto to his colleaques while under fire!Book Review: Bowel wrenching incompetence
Summary: 5 Stars
Since the invention of the genre by Michael Herr in his groundbreaking book "Dispatches", there have been many followers but few who have achieved the impact of his seminal work. In this work, Evan Wright, a staff reporter with Rolling Stone spends two months with a tough group of Recon Maries spearheading the invasion of Iraq. On several occasions, Wright's group is the northernmost tip of the entire Iraqi invasion.
Wright paints a vivid, compelling, bowel-wrenching and at times hysterically amusing portrait of contemporary US armed forces at war. It is a picture of frightening incompetence compounded by a an astounding level of naivity. Although the soldiers themselves are highly trained professionals, it seems the command structure, the supply structure and the communications structure are all completely SNAFUd.
The Recon Marines ride around in Humvees blasting the ess-haich-one-tee out of anything that is a remote sign of resistance. I kept on expecting to read of briefing sessions, foot patrols, covert observations, silent infiltration - the image we have of special forces. There is none of that. Wright paints a picture of an army whose only tactic is brute force and plenty of it.
No one can fault Wright's prose. His writing flows naturally and he documents the most intimate events in the men's lives in an honest and non-judgemental way. He draws in the reader bit by bit until one almost feels complicit with the actions of the marines he is shadowing.
However, I wonder just how much the US public will be ready to accept a depiction of the US military which leaves the reader astounded, ashamed and often outraged.