Men at War
Beston, Paul
BOOKS IN REVIEW Men at War Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright (Putnam, 354 pages, $24.95) Reviewed by Paul Beston AIllVAN...
...Not only is their mission more dangerous, most of them know nothing about it...
...Belloc and Oussani's writings make clear that Moslems and Christians don't mix very well...
...Yet most of us did not know how deeply he laid the intellectual foundation for his presidential agenda in the 1970s...
...A true portrait of the regime • Homosexuality, in the twisted Islamic purview • Moslem minorities in Christian countries: The Koran permits them to adopt a peaceful approach— but only to deceive • Chapter: "Western Appeasement...
...Why it's heresy / How close the Moslems came—as recently as three centuries ago—to dominating Europe by force Moslems / Why the Moslem military threat was so real...and then collapsed V The real origins and astonishingly rapid development of Islam / All about the Crusades (and why do Church leaders apologize for them...
...The corporal quickly announces to the rest of the platoon, "I just performed testicle surgery on the reporter...
...The book's characters make clear that the Marine Corps is a much more complicated mix of human beings than is commonly believed...
...But what resonates again and again in Generation Kill is that the Marines are not so different from the men who have preceded them: more cynical, perhaps, more attuned to the impersonal machinations of governments, as Wright notes...
...Unlike most other Marine units that were storming Iraq by It's beginning to dawn on Americans of all persuasions that Islam is no friend • MCC•IISCS I ht...
...To Wright, the First Recon Marines are "young Americans, unplugged," willingly foregoing the comforts of American consumer society for a chance to tempt death...
...Into this world of fearful uncertainty jumped candidate Ronald Reagan...
...Another continues to question his killing of three Iraqis who turned out to be unarmed, and a third rages over the numbers of civilians they have killed, and at George Bush "for getting us into this bitch...
...With reluctance they acknowledged that Reagan was telegenic and avuncular...
...Most—at least two-thirds of the radio commentaries, for instance—drafted by Reagan in his own hand...
...In this, and fortunately only in this, the book is reminiscent of the worst tendencies of the Vietnam literature...
...And many members of First Recon get involved in efforts to save a Bedouin boy they shoot accidentally...
...S.KC IHk Nr N when he arrives for his assignment at Camp Mathilda in Kuwait...
...Roman Catholic Books • P.O...
...Reagan was the antithesis of an amiable dunce, as those of us who had the honor of working for him knew well...
...This is some of their more family-friendly dialogue...
...But the anecdote is not a prelude to Wright's celebration of his own daring...
...Reagan opponents...
...60 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR March 2005 Eh" SK...
...One commander who does have his men's respect sums up his view of the military: "The incompetent leading the unwilling to do the unnecessary...
...Saw the top of his head bust off...
...IF WRIGHT'S INSTINCTS AS A REPORTER seldom fail, his insights as a writer sometimes do...
...So did Reagan's defeated Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute...
...Belloc's essay on Moslems, together with five important and meaty Catholic Encyclopedia articles by scholar Gabriel Oussani from 1908, comprise this valuable book from Roger A. McCaffrey Publishing...
...Edmund Brown in 1966 and President Jimmy Carter in 1980 assumed Reagan would prove the easiest opponent to defeat and paid for their obtuseness...
...the Marines of First Recon, an elite unit Generation Kill chronicles Wright's oh unit, two wperiodo m on months sa t with the invasion of the country, the fall of Baghdad, and the beginnings of the chaos that would follow...
...If anyone dies, he will do so surrounded by the very best friends he believes he will ever have...
...Herr often seemed like a kid in a creative writing class, excited by his latest metaphor...
...Yet underneath their updated slang and hip irony, the voices of these Marines are familiar...
...Why we're afraid, how liberals undermine resolve, what lessons we should take from Europe's recent experience with Moslems • Chapter: "Jihad's Fifth Column...
...The civilian world has a fog of its own...
...For all of the bravado the men display, maimed or dead civilians arouse consistent expressions of regret...
...Generation Kill is written in a plain-spoken, often pungent style that well suits the material...
...he describes in darkly comic detail his first experience wearing the MOPP, in which he needs to enlist a corporal to cut off the strap nearly strangling his crotch...
...Usually death is pushed to the fringes in the civilian world...
...Major themes: • What Mohammed actually taught...
...Throughout the book, battle plans and orders are shrouded in mystery and subject to change...
...Another odd note is Wright's title, which seems to promise a book about a group of Americans unlike any other, fighting a war unlike any that preceded it...
...He does not lavish obsequious praise on the men, but he does acknowledge the gulf that exists between them and most of their fellow citizens in the States...
...Iran was falling to the mullahs...
...And Third World governments were gravitating to collectivism...
...Here, the Marines face death together, in their youth...
...It's odd to read Wright's suggestion that there is no remorse...
...Yet his book, which features numerous incidents in which the Marines kill unarmed Iraqi civilians in the fog of war or confusion about the military's changing rules of engagement, also contains numerous expressions from those Marines of remorse and reflection...
...That didn't feel good...
...Over 50 years before Serge Trifkovic's exposé on Islam the great writer Hilaire Belloc warned: "I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam...
...He never loses sight of that one thing that cannot be overrated: Everyone is side by side, facing the same big fear: death...
...One of the most celebrated Vietnam books, Michael Herr's Dispatches, was as often about Herr as it was about the men in Vietnam...
...Generation Kill's Marines will make you laugh out loud many times, sometimes against your better nature...
...1/4 The Gipper's Pen Reagan's Path to Victory: The Shaping of Ronald Reagan's Vision: Selected Writings edited by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson (Free Press, 560 pages, $35) Reviewed by Doug Bandow THE DEATH OF RONALD REAGAN last June sparked an explosion of public emotion...
...One of his frequent targets was Fidel Castro...
...For this knowledge we can be thankful to researcher Kiron Skinner and former Reagan aides Annelise and Martin Anderson...
...He dispatched both in landslides...
...In my civilian world at home in Los Angeles," he writes, "half the people I know are on anti-depressants or anti-panic attack drugs because they can't handle the stress of a mean boss or a crowd at the 7-Eleven when buying a Slurpee...
...No matter what they encounter along the way—gun-blasted children, bodies on the side of the road, elderly Iraqis eager to be taken into custody, civilians whom they shoot accidentally—the Marines maintain their composure through generous helpings of black humor, camaraderie, and professionalism...
...BOOKS IN REVIEW Men at War Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright (Putnam, 354 pages, $24.95) Reviewed by Paul Beston AIllVAN WRIGHT, A CONTRIBUTING EDITOR for Rolling Stone, was embedded in Iraq with that came to call itself "First Suicide Battalion...
...From the unflappable Sergeant Brad Colbert, who is known as the Iceman, to the cocky young Corporals Trombley and Person ("When I become a pop star," Person says, "I'm going to make pro-war songs"), to a Marx-quoting Communist, a radical Indian who fulminates about the sins of the White Man, a chronically discontented camp medic, and many memorable others, First Recon is truly a platoon that looks like America...
...That dude I saw crawling last night, I shot him in the grape," [the head], says one Marine...
...Thousands waited hours to pass by his coffin...
...It makes me sick...
...But they still saw him as an old movie actor, ignorant of substance and reliant on cue cards...
...What makes Generation Kill special is the way the writer keeps his focus on the Marines and not on himself and his reactions to the Marines...
...Washington's long struggle to preserve South Vietnam was shamefully over...
...Whatever Wright's political views may be—he quotes Marines both critical and supportive of the war, but does not opine—there is little question of his affection for these Marines, his concern for their welfare, and his quiet admiration of their ability to fight and yes, to kill...
...To read Reagan's Path to Victory is to revisit America under siege, an America groaning under an energy crisis and stagflation, stifling taxes and crime, and reeling from a Watergate scandal that nearly destroyed the GOP...
...Their operations and scope of activity in our own country save 66% Publisher's price of Sword of the Prophet iblisher's price of Mos Both Available Separately If You don't want to take advantage of this Special Offer...
...One Marine tells Wright that being together 62 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR March 2005 with his comrades is the best part about the war...
...She discovered a treasure-trove of Reagan manuscripts: columns, radio commentaries, speeches, letters...
...He also examines: • The anti-Christian bias of most major media coverage which, oddly enough, leads to whitewashing of the Islamic faith • Actual teachings of both "militant Islam" and allegedly "moderate Islam" / Hair-raising elements in the Koran V The prophet Mohammed's life and works, in disturbing detail V Treatment of females, easy divorce, temporary marriage, quantity of wives: but you've probably heard only a fraction of the horrors Moslem women face V Why "right" and "just" in Islam have shifting meanings and are not anchored in God's decrees • Moslem massacres in the past few years V The golden age of Islam—a sobering overview, and one that belies the notion that Moslems are inept / Our ally, Saudi Arabia...
...GENERATION KILL MANAGES TO BUILD considerable suspense throughout, owing to Wright's skill with narrative and the special role of First Recon as shock troops for the invasion...
...Most people face their end pretty much alone, with a few family members if they are lucky...
...The lesson: Christians need to reproduce to survive...
...13 171 . Belloc's words were written in 1936—long before the Christian West permitted millions of Moslems to immigrate and proliferate, building thousands of new mosques in the United States and Europe, including a huge one in Rome itself a few years ago...
...There are only a few points where Wright injects himself into the book...
...Thy Sha Ronald Reagan pingo!' '''Pnis March 2005 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 63...
...Colbert and Person supply some of the most amusing moments...
...Everyone around Reagan knew that he thought seriously about philosophy and read widely...
...His scripts are filled with facts and practical arguments, but his philosophical commitment to freedom is their most striking mark...
...Just as important: Christians cannot share political power with sworn enemies without dire consequences for their children and grandchildren...
...The left never came to terms with his power to move Americans...
...Both California Gov...
...The Soviet Union was a Communist colossus on the march...
...Generation Kill sets a high standard for the growing Iraq literature, but like any worthwhile account it speaks beyond its moment to the larger theme of men in war—any men, any war...
...Even when some commanders make foolish decisions or lose the respect of their units, the Marines seem to take it all in stride...
...Box 2286 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-2286 • 970-490-2735 TITLE QUANTITY PRICE TOTAL ^ Yes, I'd like to Save 66% and buy both Sword of the Prophet/Moslems I'd rather take only the book indicated below at the suggested retail price ^ Sword of the Prophet $13.17 $19.95 ^ Moslems $18.80 AS305 Subtotal $ $ Please add $2 postage & handling for each book For credit card orders, TOTAL $ please fill in the information below: Charge my 3 VISA 3 MasterCard Expires Signature PLEASE PRINT Name Address City State Zip , Telephone BOOKS IN REVIEW highway, theirs was taking a hellish alternate route through some of the deadliest parts of the country, seeking out ambushes and drawing enemy fire so that the larger forces could go in with less opposition...
...19.95 $ 0 $38.75' Your price for both books this Special Offer ONLY...
...Their elite fraternity is hyper-male and joyously profane...
...It is as if Wright took to heart something one of the Marines tells him: "Everything in life is overrated except death," journalists certainly included...
...At the end of the book, he suggests that the Marines lack moral qualms about the people they have killed...
...Most are near the beginning, Paul Beston is a writer in New York City...
...each book is available separately at the publisher's suggested retail price: $19.95 for Sword of gg t ta the Prophet and $18.80 for Moslems...
...it seems almost as if he The book's characters make clear that the Marine Corps is a much more complicated mix of human beings than is commonly believed...
...In talk after talk he advanced the message of self-reliance, free enterprise, and unapologetic antiCommunism...
...A camp chaplain remarks at some point that the men are among the most crude and foulmouthed he has ever ministered to...
...He served Ronald Reagan in his 1980 presidential campaign and was a special assistant to the president in the White House...
...Skinner and the Andersons produced five compilations, of which Reagan's Path to Victory: The Shaping ofRonald Reagan's Vision: Selected Writings, is the latest...
...BOOKS IN REVIEW wrote that sentence after he had been away from the men awhile, after his identification with them had dissipated...
...Both men detest country music, and at one point Person says that when Baghdad falls, "Lee Greenwood is going to parachute in, singing 'I'm Proud to be an American.'" When the two turn to mocking Aaron Tippin's "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagles Fly," Colbert says, "That song is straight homosexual country music, Special Olympics-gay...
...Wright mentions that another reporter had been scheduled to join him on the assignment, but suffered "an acute attack of sanity" after hearing the Marines' warnings about what might happen if you had to vomit inside your chemical warfare suit, known as a MOPP...
...In 1996 Skinner was reviewing Reagan's private papers while studying the end of the Cold War...
...Reagan opposed normalization of relations with Cuba until Castro adopted "some of the simple humanitarian customs we consider normal...
...It offers Reagan's radio commentaries from 1975 to 1979, during which he launched his narrowly unsuccessful presidential bid against Republican President Gerald Ford and after which he defeated Democratic President Jimmy Carter...
...N.....S\s-Ord of I )rophi t SERGE TRIEKOVIC And none too soon, says journalist-scholar Serge Trifkovic, whose alarming new book documents present-day Moslem atrocities on several continents...
Vol. 38 • March 2005 • No. 2
