Evan Wright (1964–2024)

The "The Wire" crew turned this book into a fantastic HBO mini-series. It is easy to see why they liked this hard-to-put-down account by a Rolling Stone reporter of invading Iraq with a US marine battalion. He describes the young men with a lot of sympathy and brings their idiosyncrasies to life. They live in a strange world, with strange rules. A separate micro-cosmos which is based on US society, its products, its TV shows and media, but is also vastly different. "Generation Kill" is a show more misnomer. Kill is accurate, but they are not representative of their generation. Only a minority (and predominantly the underclass) of Americans serves in the US military. This book shows the rest of America (and the world) how that tiny slice of humanity lives and how they behaved in Iraq - just as "The Wire" offered a glimpse into Baltimore's projects.

Their world (and the US military) is held together by sergeants who train, educate and integrate and micro-manage both their charges, the enlisted men and the officers. As this book drastically shows, the US military has lost the "war for talents". While the military is still an attractive career option for enlisted men from America's underprivileged areas, good officers are in short supply - and the best are pushed out of the system while the worst tend to be promoted. An organization with a lot of brawn but little brain.

The book is filled with examples where a little thought could have vastly improved the (often deadly) outcome. Due to different encryption tools, East Coast marines are unable to communicate with West Coast marines (apart from the fact of limited abilities to communicate with the Air force, US army and their allies which often leads to friendly fire among the trigger-happy US forces) - easily solvable by a relay. Their guns jam because they lack lubricants (to be expected in a desert environment), they cannot use their night-vision goggles because they are short of batteries, ...

On a grander level, the lack of planning and imagination has devastating consequences for the Iraqi people who are subjected to a wide range of US violence, from negligence to abuse to unnecessary cruelty to outright war crimes. A complicit hierarchy creates a climate for war crimes, neglects to investigate or charge offenders (who in this unit are even promoted despite showing horrible lapses of leadership and even military skill, the Peter principle on steroids). The platoon psycho is christened "Whopper BK" (baby killer for his unnecessary shooting of a child). Having his killer instincts honed in the marine corps, readers will note that this individual has joined the LAPD, another institution with a fine human rights track record. Incidents such as the Haditha killings show similar lack of leadership, integrity and responsibility. The US military in all its branches is in severe need of rebuilding.

The book also shows how the marines were good at breaking things, but lacked the tools, understanding and resources to restore order and civilization after the mayhem they inflicted. Time and time again, the reporter notes that the Iraqis welcomed the Americans (despite their violent appearance) but were turned away and left alone with their problems. A number of heroic individuals were unable to prevail against the incompetent Bush administration, the military brass and bureaucratic shortsighted meanness, In a fair world, those responsible would be punished. This book exposes the ugly side of America. The mini-series and the book deserve a wide audience, so that what happened is not pushed down the memory hole. show less

I must admit am among the growing legions that will read this thanks to the HBO series - and probably wouldn't have touched it otherwise, particularly as a lefty anti-war (and non-American) type (although also as a junior academic who has done some research for a colleague on war journalism, so I guess it all balances out). Wright's book is compelling, exciting, entertaining and heartbreaking, presenting the complexity of experiences of war and the particular cultures (social, ethnic, show more racial, professional, class etc) from which this particular lot of young men emerge. Given that the embedding of journalists is often a strategic action on the behalf of the military (on the one hand, it is about transparency and freedom of information/speech but on the other, they rely on the development of cameraderie and trust between the journo and the troops to compromise journalistic objectivity), Wright attempts to present as balanced a view as he possibly can but the benefit of hindsight probably landed him back pretty much where he started. As a reader, I emerged with a little more admiration for serving troops than I might have started with but certainly a greater sadness for them and for a society and global political/economic situation that requires such conflict and the perpetuation of a certain militaristic culture. To bring it back to the HBO series where I started, I also have to commend David Simon and Ed Burns (who I already loved for The Wire) for the faithfulness of their production to Wright's book. They might be flawed but I think both this book and its series are important for bringing certain experiences to light on a more popular level, and hopefully getting a few people (myself included) to think a little more critically but perhaps also a little bit more fairly about war and the US military. show less

Generation Kill is the definitive cultural history of the invasion of Iraq, an honest account of war and the men who fight in it, and a damn good read.

Wright spent the invasion embedded with Bravo Company, First Marine Recon, and he mostly lets the men speak for themselves, liberally quoting their personal philosophies, reflections on battle, and back-and-forth bullshit. These vignettes are balanced by Wright's personal reflections on being shot at, mortared, and taking part in what I can show more only describe as History's Worst Roadtrip.

A little criticism and comparison. Wright occasionally flubs some technical military stuff (how mortars work, FLIR) which some people might find annoying. He gives more 'screen-time' to outspoken Marines who match his attitudes, like Espera and Reyes, than the quieter and more conservative southerners. This is a just a month-long slice of the American military at the peak of its power and confidence, before the worst effects of the Long War took hold. Compared to the HBO miniseries, the book is better paced--war truly is long periods of boredom interspersed with absolute terror--and that makes for problematic TV. Generation Kill is generally easier to read and grasp than Fick's One Bullet Away because Wright, like most of us, is an outsider to the Marines (not that Fick is a bad writer: he's quite skilled, but Wright makes a living with the pen and there's a clear difference), while at the same time being more sensationalized. Really though, there's no reason not to check out all of these versions of the story.

The Marines of First Recon are depicted as supremely skilled killers eager to test themselves against the Ultimate. They're ironic patriots, mocking the Marines indoctrination and moto BS while enthusiastically basing their identified around warrior machismo. The best of them balance cold-blooded sharpshooting with moral sensitivity. They keep going, despite nonsensical orders, no sleep, no supplies, and a mission that they didn't train for.

Generation Kill is a great book, one that can only be described with the two most important words in the whole Marine Corps: Get some! show less

An outstanding look at the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the perspective of front line grunts. Evan Wright strings together his Rolling Stone articles into a more substantial, well-crafted account of the lengths the First Recon Battalion went to from D-Day to the fall of Baghdad. A thought-provoking look at a war people thought would be over in one hundred hours, the men Wright writes about seem even more real than those in history novels from Vietnam, WWII or WWI. These events happened only show more years ago. There isn't yet the distance - or end - to this conflict to dull the edges. show less