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Generation Kill | 
 enlarge | Author: Evan Wright
Publisher: Corgi Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.45
Buy New: $8.66
You Save: $5.79 (40%)
New (13) Used (4) from $7.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  176 reviews
Sales Rank: 1098265
Media: Paperback
Pages: 359
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0552151890
Dewey Decimal Number: 950
EAN: 9780552151894
ASIN: 0552151890
Publication Date: April 11, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Expected US delivery in 7-10 business days
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| Also Available In:
| • | Hardcover - Generation Kill | | • | Audio Download - Generation Kill (Unabridged) | | • | Paperback - Generation Kill | | • | Paperback - Generation Kill | | • | Hardcover - GENERATION KILL:Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War | | • | Audio CD - Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War | | • | Audio CD - Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War | | • | Audio CD - Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War | | • | Library Binding - Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War | | • | Audio Cassette - Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War (Playaway Adult Nonfiction) | | • | Hardcover - Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War | | • | Paperback - Generation Kill | | • | Kindle Edition - Generation Kill | | • | Paperback - Generation Kill | | • | Paperback - Generation Kill |
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Product Description
Generation Kill is about the young men sent to fight their nation's first open-ended war since Vietnam. Despite the flurry of media images to come of the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, you have never really met any of these people, who serve as front-line troops. For whatever reason, the media simply doesn't get them. As we all know, news accounts of the last two wars focused almost exclusively on battlefield imagery of high-tech weapons wreaking astounding destruction, comply with analysis from retired army grandees and other experts, punctuated by the odd heart-warming patriotic sound-bite. The troops themselves play a role in the media's presentation of recent wars rather like extras in The Triumph of the Will. They are everywhere yet somehow invisible. When they speak you get the sense that what they are saying has been carefully scripted. Now Generation Kill tells the soldiers' story in their own words The narrative focuses on a platoon of 23 marines, many of them veterans of Afghanistan, whose elite reconnaissance unit spearheaded the blitzkrieg on Iraq. This is the story of young men that have been trained to become ruthless killers. It's about surviving death. It's about taking part in a war many questioned before it even began Evan Wright was the only reporter with First Recon, which operated well ahead of most other forces, usually behind enemy lines. They were among the first marines sent into the fight and one of the last units still engaged on the outskirts of Iraq, even after the city centre fell. Generation Kill is not just a combat chronicle but an inside look at how people fighting in war actually experience it. It is both an action narrative like Black Hawk Down and a detailed portrait of a generation at war along the lines of Band of Brothers. It is not a book you are going to forget in a hurry..
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| Customer Reviews: Read 171 more reviews...
 Not Convinced War Was Nesscessary November 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just finished this book after watching the HBO series. I think David Simon did a great job producing the series. As a woman I have respect for the Marines even though they seem to think we are useful for only one thing! Nevertheless, there was still no reason for this war! There were no nuclear weapons! This story that we have to fight over there so they will not come here is just more lies. These people as you read in this book were for the most part sheperds, farmers, very poor living in mud huts. What makes people think they all want to come fight over here. Heck, they've never been in an airplane and as you could see in the book the ones that did fight were terrible fighters and not at all professional soldiers. It was like shooting ducks in an amusement park! How we can sit here and glorify that is beyond me. Sickening! This whole war is a sad commentary on our country. What have we done to help these people rebuild their country and their lives? It is a whole lot harder and more noble to be a peacemaker than to shoot a gun at what? I am glad I read this book for the insight into the mindset of the soldiers. I commend Mr. Wright for getting this story out, it is worthwhile to read.
 Hard Cover Genenration Kill October 29, 2008
I really liked this book which gave me an idea what it was like in Iraq during the beginning of the war. The more current release of this book has more information as to what has since happen to the soldiers after serving their country.
A masterful telling of how the U.S. does it today. October 13, 2008
***** Combat troops of all branches have, with few exceptions, e.g. Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin, little trust or regard for journalists. Having spent time in both camps, I side with my brothers and sisters at arms and understand why they are leery of these foreign beings spying on them. Therefore, I picked up "Generation Kill" with much skepticism. To my surprise, it wasn't what I had expected.
Evan Wright, a contributor to "Rolling Stone" and other journals, joins a United States Marine Corps Recon (Reconnaissance) Battalion and is attached at the platoon level or lower for their blitzkrieg drive through northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He endures what they endure and faces what they face with little, if any, more knowledge than they have of their situations. Wright captures the terror, the confusion, the fatigue, the stress, the bonding, the ennui, the bravery, the incompetence, and the soul-searching that are part of combat.
As a read, I found old comrades living on in this younger generation, but the conversations were similar to my generation's and to my father's with only some idiomatic changes. There were the same SNAFUs, FUBARs, REMFs, RAMFs, POGs, and other things that make up the grunt-speak of the various generations. And true today as it has always been, the more specialized and proficient the warrior, and Recon Marines are among the top 1% in the Corps, which puts them among the elite warriors of the world, there is more thoughtfulness about their job and about each mission--mindless drones they are not. A character in a novel once commented, not so tongue-in-cheek, that they should hand out mortarboards instead of berets upon completion of the Army's Special Forces training, except the mortarboards are a pain in a firefight. The ironies of war are not lost on these intelligent young Marines nor are their coping mechanisms ignored or considered particularly unusual...highly paid professional athletes often have quirks, too.
Wright grasps the current socio-political climate quite well, as we see when he recommends "Groundhog Day" as the best film to describe a grunt's view of war. I will wholeheartedly agree with his assessment that, unlike Vietnam, when it comes time to look for those to be held in shame, the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shall not and must not be among that group. "The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall." Or as Wright puts it, "It's the American public for whom the Iraqi war is no more real than a video game" (a reference to a quote in the the book about Grand Theft Auto). In short, war is still war and it is a horrible undertaking...but we still wage it upon each other with all the skill and lethality we can muster. Evan Wright's book is masterful telling of how the U.S. does it today; complete with the warts and flaws for all to see. *****
Reviewed by Dr. Phil Rhyne for Huntress Reviews.
A great few from the frontlines. October 13, 2008
This is a must read. I couldn't put it down. It finished it in two days and I've gone back and read it again to make sure I didn't miss out on it since I went through it so quickly. It was great to see the soldier's experience and not the politicians view point. I'm sure there were still a lot of things that were left out due to censorship, but it was still a great read.
War Reportage October 12, 2008
While not as deep and emotional as Micheal Herr's Dispatches, Generation Kill still provides a great look into one facet of America's war in Iraq, the tip of the spear the 1St Marine Recon following the doctrine of maneuver warfare.
However it is one facet and one reporters viewpoint on a highly complicated war, deeper understanding would be found in Fear Up Harsh (intelligence and interrogation) and House to House (Battle of Fallujah) as well as Fiasco: War in Iraq.
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