Generation Kill

Evan Wright embeds with the lightly-equipped (and Humvee mounted) First Recon whose job is to lead the US invasion to Baghdad. The men are the usual mixture of saints and sinners (often at the same time) for whom the USMC feels a vocation. They are shooting civilians one moment and trying to save them the next. Wright is excellent at sketching the boredom of soldiering, the sudden jag of combat, and the long recovery from the combat high. If there is a villain in the piece of non-judgemental reporting it is the officers a number of whom (disguised by nicknames)are roundly criticised by the men and by the author. First Recon is an elite formation and its performance makes for an interesting contrast with "Ambush Alley".

An Inside look at 1st Recon (2/2 people found this helpful)

A journalist embedded with a marine reconnaissance platoon during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 explains how this generation of soldiers differs from their predecessors. Describes cases of collateral damage and the deaths of comrades as American troops entered Baghdad. As others have pointed out he gets most of it right, but seems to want to spin that all officers are dumb and marines are angry. This spin he places on these two points are not the norm. This book contains violence and very strong language.

A new classic (1/1 people found this helpful)

Rolling Stone contributing editor Evan Wright gets himself embedded --riding in the lead Humvee -- with Bravo Company of the US Marines' First Recon Batallion as they smash their way from the Kuwait border to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The result is probably the best war reporting we're likely to see from that phase of the conflict.

Some of the things that set this book apart is Wright's proximity to the fighting - recklessly close - in addition to his use of First Recon's unofficial nicknames for certain officers, which allows Wright to expose their misjudgements or downright incompetence in some cases.

The battle plan is to put the doctrine of "maneuver warfare" into practice, with First Recon leading the charge straight into and through enemy positions, destroying any resistance and then moving on without bothering to secure the area. The idea is to move quickly and wrong foot the defending forces and in this the plan is a stunning success.

Not that the Marines of First Recon have any idea what the plan is. Wright chronicles a story of chronic equipment failures, constantly changing orders and stimulant-fueled extreme violence. Just make sure you're clean shaven when you enter Bagdhad. There is no plan for what happens after that.

A good compliment to this book is "The March Up" by Bing West and Major General Ray L. Smith, which tells the story of the entire 1st Marine Division's invasion of Iraq and capture of Baghdad from the point of view of a senior career Marine officer.

Keep in mind that both of these books are about the invasion of Iraq. There are hints of the coming chaos of the occupation, but both books end with the capture of Baghdad. Highly recommended.

A Yankee take on Generation Kill (2/3 people found this helpful)

I'm an American studying in England and Amazon-UK has become my new local book store.
My thoughts on the book aside (and below) I am most dramatically struck by the hostility evinced in these reviews. The reviews are redolent with barely constrained anger over--what, perceived slights from WW2?--and perverse delight in the "revelation" that the American military is manned by.....fallible humans. Surely the mystique the American military attempts to cultivate--as do the militaries of all nations--has not been accepted as gospel by these reviewers? Are the failings of the American military so delicious a discovery? For shame.

Wright's book is first rate reporting, and excellent literature. It depicts a reality of war that any thinking person must be willing to face; namely that wars are orgies of violence with only the thinnest veneer of civility overlaid. Those who consider this to a be a new or particularly American phenomenon are allowing themselves to indulge too much in self-gratifying fanatasy. Young men, fighting an unseen and unknowable enemy, developing tactics on the fly, struggling to balance terrible conflicting compulsions: the result is ugly. And Wright does not flinch from or justify the ugliness. Some readers may have been less interested in the salacious aspects of his reporting--certainly their reviews do not remark upon it: namely the decency of individual men and the efforts to do what good can be done within the maelstrom of war.

Not a history, not a polemic, not a apologia--simply a superb witness to what is both a modern and timeless reality. An excellent book!

Amateur Warriors in Wartime Disneyland. (1/9 people found this helpful)

This book proves once and for all the myth of the American armed forces. High Tech, lots and lots of money and saturation bombing allover. As for the individual soldier, he is (on the average) 19-24 yrs old, semi litterate and with mickey mouse (or Britney Spears) mentality. If facing a real combat enemy (see Vietnamese or German Vermacht) the Americans as they actually did in the past would start running...backwards. The book shows that in actuality the war in IRAQ was not a war. It involved mainly shooting civilians and animals. To top it all off it shows that the Americans (marines ha, ha ha)rely mainly on pre arranged artillery, airstrkes and even ...cruise missiles (for God`s sake) before attempting to even proceed in so called enemy territory. Chickenhearted? Probably. In a real war they would lose everytime as they have done in the past. They would even lose Texas itself. Great book.

Evan Wright

Reader Reviews:

Solid reportage but the same old tune. (0/0 people found this helpful)

An Inside look at 1st Recon (2/2 people found this helpful)

A new classic (1/1 people found this helpful)

A Yankee take on Generation Kill (2/3 people found this helpful)

Amateur Warriors in Wartime Disneyland. (1/9 people found this helpful)

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