In the book, the Marines have very mixed feelings:
Person:
“When I get out of the Marines in November, I’m going to miss it.”
Ferrando:
“Something I’m struggling with internally is it’s exciting to get shot at. It’s an excitement that I hadn’t thought about before. But at the same time it’s a terrible feeling to be the man sending other people into combat.”
Bryan:
“This place was f!@#ed up before we came, and it’s f!@#ed up now. I personally don’t believe we ‘liberated’ the Iraqis. Time will tell.”
Espera:
“The American people ought to know the price we pay to maintain their standard of living, I wish I could go back in time and see if they were enemy, or just confused civilians...”
Espera shot and killed three unarmed men fleeing a truck at the Marines' roadblock at Al Hayy.
Fick (in response to Espera):
“It could have been a truckful of babies, and with our Rules of Engagement you did the right thing,”
Espera (response to Fick):
“I’m not saying I care. I don’t give a f!@#. But I keep thinking about what the priest said. It’s not a sin to kill with a purpose, as long you don’t enjoy it. My question is, is indifference the same as enjoyment?”
Redman:
“You really can’t top it. Combat is the supreme adrenaline rush. You take rounds. Shoot back, sh@# starts blowing up. It’s sensory overload. It’s the one thing that’s not overrated in the military.”
Bryan:
“The f!@#ed thing, is the men we’ve been fighting probably came here for the same reasons we did, to test themselves, to feel what war is like. In my view it doesn’t matter if you oppose or support war. The machine goes on.”
EpilogueFick left the Marine Corps and pursued a graduate degree in business and foreign relations at Harvard. For several months, he debated whether he had been a good officer, or whether his concerns for his men colored his judgement. He concluded:
“My feelings made me a more conflicted officer. There was no celebratory cigar smoking on the battlefield for me. But we achieved every mission objective. I did my job.”
Bryan came to the conclusion:
“You know what, I’m just not cut out for the military.”
Bryan stayed in the military and moved on to Special Operations.
Espera left the Marine Corps, later speaking at a party in Malibu to toast the returning veteran:
“I’m not a hero. Guys like me are just a necessary part of things. To maintain this way of life in a fine community like this, you need psychos like us to go out and drop a bomb on somebody’s house.”
Reyes:
“In the end, they need bodies for the war. This is the way the Corps is. You join for the idealism, but eventually you see the flaws in it. You might fight this for a while. Then you accept that one man isn’t going to change the Marine Corps. If you love the Corps, you give up some of the ideals which motivated you to join in the first place.”
"Toto, I've [got] a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
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bubblenator
9 years ago
Thanks MightyTiki,
A lot of powerful quotes from respected Marines and just like our troops are now second guessing themselves as to whether they ever achieved anything over there with all the fighting and destruction!
If you are not willing to give up everything, you have already lost
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MightyTiki
9 years ago
It's easy to look back retrospectively at events that took place in 2003, during the initial ground invasion of Iraq. Even in 2008, when the TV series was made--enough time had passed and the general consensus was that the war was unpopular with the American people, yet they still, by in large supported the troops.
The book Generation Kill was published in 2004. A year later, the Bush administration would announced that troops would stop searching for weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4169107.stm
By that point, not a single person who went downrange questioned "What are we doing here?"
Having said all of that, war is a very personal and profound experience. It effects people in different ways.
"Toto, I've [got] a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
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