[b:Generation Kill|6357099|Generation Kill|Evan Wright|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327571775l/6357099._SY75_.jpg|908023] is a favourite book of mine that I hadn't reread for about 15 years. Then I picked it up for reference while reviewing [b:Occupational Hazards|594673|Occupational Hazards|Rory Stewart|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356125412l/594673._SY75_.jpg|29349] and accidentally reread all 450 pages in an evening. It was just as involving and brilliantly observed as when I first read it. The author, Evan Wright, was embedded with the recon marines who were at 'the tip of the spear' of the 2003 Iraq invasion. It's pretty wild that the marine corps thought bringing a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine onto the front line of an invasion was a solid idea. Showing a remarkable lack of self-preservation instincts, Wright rode along in an unarmoured humvee with a recon marine platoon during the first weeks of the war. First recon were sent ahead of the main American forces in an erratic series of missions that repeatedly took them through built-up areas in order to draw out Iraqi forces.

What makes Wright's book truly compelling is his portraits of the recon marines he accompanied and their reactions to the invasion. He gets way past the superficial macho hoo-rah, which is particularly potent in the elite all-male recon marines. Wright devotes a lot of time to the marines' bullshit and banter in order to establish their culture, dynamics, and relationships. The personalities he depicts are so compelling that HBO adapted the book into a miniseries. I highly recommend that as well. With the warning that, as with all war TV that tries to be authentic with uniforms, it will take several episodes to recognise anyone as they all look the same. This is only appropriate, as Wright mentions his initial struggle to distinguish between all these guys:

In my first couple of days at the camp I'm placed in a tent with officers. I can't tell anybody apart; they all look the same in their desert camouflage fatigues. Most of the officers seem to be square-jawed, blue-eyed white guys in their mid to late twenties. The initial reason I strike up an acquaintance with Lt. Fick, commander of the platoon I end up spending the war with, is he's easily recognisable. Though he's twenty-five, he has a loping, adolescent stride you can spot from a hundred metres away. He's one of fifty men who introduce themselves to me during my first twenty-four hours at the camp, but he's the only one I'm able to call by name on my way to the mess tent and ask if I can join him for dinner.

By experiencing the mayhem and danger of the invasion along with the marines, Wright provides a raw and visceral account of what happened. It is unflattering to overall military command and doesn't show the marine corps in a remotely good light. But the individual marines he accompanied are presented in a nuanced, sympathic manner, providing a fascinating insight into what made them join recon. (There seems to be a fair amount of masochism involved.) Yet he never loses sight of the fact that they are killers:

However admirable the military's attempts are to create ROE [rules of engagement],
they basically create an illusion of moral order where there is none. The Marines operate in chaos. It doesn't matter if a Marine is following orders and ROE, or disregarding them. The fact is, as soon as a Marine pulls the trigger on his rifle, he's on his own. He's entered a game of moral chance. When it's over, he's as likely to go down as a hero or as a baby killer. The only difference between Trombley and any number of other Marines who've shot or killed people they shouldn't have is that he got caught. And this only happened because the battalion stopped moving long enough for the innocent victims to catch up with it.

[b:Generation Kill|6357099|Generation Kill|Evan Wright|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327571775l/6357099._SY75_.jpg|908023] is excellent at conveying the terrible contradictions and cruelties of the Iraq invasion. It seems a matter of chance whether the marines are shooting Iraqi children or offering them humanitarian rations and medical care at any given point. The narrative is also intensely entertaining, as Wright is a brilliant journalist who was put in an extraordinary situation. His account covers two extremely intense months, concluding with his departure from Iraq on May 4th 2003. For involving accounts of the subsequent occupation, which echo Fick's observation in April 2003 that "As far as I can see, there's no American plan for Baghdad", try [b:Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone|1151312|Imperial Life in the Emerald City Inside Baghdad's Green Zone|Rajiv Chandrasekaran|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347802069l/1151312._SY75_.jpg|1275660] and [b:Occupational Hazards|594673|Occupational Hazards|Rory Stewart|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356125412l/594673._SY75_.jpg|29349]. ( )

Great on-the-ground reporting of the Iraq War's first week. Wright occasionally tries too hard to get into the heads of the Recon Marines, but for the most part he provides an even keeled account that demonstrates how the war's early successes laid the groundwork for the quagmire that followed. ( )

Generation Kill was my favorite movie/tv series (miniseries, somewhere in between) about the Iraq War (specifically the invasion phase). The journalist who rode with the Recon Marines during a high-speed, light force assault deep into Iraq was himself quite brave, and did an excellent job both winning the trust of the Marines and accurately documenting what it was like for them. It was particularly interesting that he was able to clearly describe the various personalities within the unit and how they interacted in a stressful situation, rather than just focusing on the facts and figures of the invasion.

I'd probably slightly prefer the miniseries to the book, but both are very good. ( )

As a Marine who served in Desert Storm, I appreciated the candid look at this Marine unit which included all the good, bad and ugly. You can read the history about what happened, but this book gives an inside look at the Marines who made the history. Semper Fi. ( )

I saw the television series first, and I thought it was brilliant. The book is of the same quality, though I missed the extra personality injected by seeing it enacted. Lots of nice additional details, but I think the biggest add-on came in the afterword, where the author reflects with incisive criticism on the book, its aftermath, its reactions, and the overall place/state of war in modern America. ( )