- Wright, Evan.
Generation Kill.
New York: Berkley Caliber, 2004.
ISBN 0-425-20040-X.
-
The author was an “embedded journalist” with
Second Platoon, Bravo Company of the U.S. First Marine Reconnaissance
Battalion from a week before the invasion of Iraq in March
of 2003 through the entire active combat phase and subsequent
garrison duty in Baghdad until the end of April. This book is an
expanded edition of his National Magazine Award
winning reportage in Rolling Stone.
Recon Marines are the elite component of the U.S. Marine
Corps—like Army Special Forces or Navy SEALs; there are only
about a thousand Recon Marines in the entire 180,000 strong Corps.
In the invasion of Iraq, First Recon was used—some say
misused—as the point of the spear, often the lead unit
in their section of the conflict, essentially inviting ambushes
by advancing into suspected hostile terrain.
Wright accompanied the troops 24/7 throughout their mission,
sharing their limited rations, sleeping in the same “Ranger
graves”, and risking the enemy fire, incoming mortar
rounds, and misdirected friendly artillery and airstrikes
alongside the Marines. This is 100% grunt-level boots on the
ground reportage in the tradition of Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin,
and superbly done. If you're looking for grand strategy or
“what it all means”, you won't find any of that:
only the confusing and often appalling face of war as seen through
the eyes of the young men sent to fight it. The impression you're
left with of the troops (and recall, these are elite warriors of
a military branch itself considered elite) is one of apolitical
professionalism. You don't get the slightest sense they're
motivated by patriotism or a belief they're defending their country
or its principles; they're there to do their job, however messy
and distasteful. One suspects you'd have heard much the same from
the Roman legionnaires who occupied this land almost nineteen
centuries ago.
The platoon's brief stay in post-conquest Baghdad provides some
insight into why war-fighters, however they excel at
breaking stuff and killing people, are as ill-suited to the
tasks of nation building, restoring civil order, and
promoting self-government as a chainsaw is for watchmaking.
One begins to understand how it can be that three
years after declaring victory in Iraq, a military power which
was able to conquer the entire country in less than two weeks
has yet to assert effective control over its capital city.
April 2006 