Evan Wright Quotes
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For the first time in history, drug addicts and drunks—once viewed as human wreckage that drained families and society of resources—had become valuable properties. People could make fortunes off them.
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The incompetent leading the unwilling to do the unnecessary.
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What unites them is an almost reckless desire to test themselves in the most extreme circumstances. In many respects the life they have chosen is a complete rejection of the hyped, consumerist American dream as it is dished out in reality TV shows and pop-song lyrics. They've chosen asceticism over consumption. Instead of celebrating their individualism, theyíve subjugated theirs to the collective will of an institution. Their highest aspiration is self-sacrifice over self-preservation.
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I cruised into this war thinking my buddy's going to take a bullet, and I'm going to be the fucking hero pulling him out of harm's way. Instead, I end up pulling out this little girl we shot, hiding in the backseat of her dad's car.
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We're like America's little pit bull. They beat it, starve it, mistreat it, and once in a while they let it out to attack somebody.
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She looks to be about three, the same age as his daughter at home in California...the girl's eyes are open. She seems to be cowering...Graves reaches in to pick her up- thinking about what medical supplies he might need to treat her...when the top of her head slides off and her brains fall out.
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With everyone lounging around, eating sleeping, sunning, pooping, it looks like some weird combat version of an outdoor rock festival.
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It struck me that such analyses had it backward. It’s the American public for whom the Iraq War is often no more real than a video game. Five years into this war, I am not always confident most Americans fully appreciate the caliber of the people fighting for them, the sacrifices they have made, and the sacrifices they continue to make. After the Vietnam War ended, the onus of shame largely fell on the veterans. This time around, if shame is to be had when the Iraq conflict ends - and all indications are there will be plenty of it - the veterans are the last people in America to deserve it. When it comes to apportioning shame my vote goes to the American people who sent them to war in a surge of emotion but quickly lost the will to either win it or end it. The young troops I profiled in Generation Kill, as well as the other men and women in uniform I’ve encountered in combat zones throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, are among the finest people of their generation. We misuse them at our own peril.
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Marines getting baptized? This used to be a place of men with pure warrior spirit. Chaplains are a goddamn waste.
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In my civilian world at home in Los Angeles, half the people I know are on antidepressants 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.
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They kill hundreds of people, those pilots. I would have loved to have flown the plane that dropped the bomb on Japan. A couple of dudes killed hundreds of thousands. That f****** rules! Yeah!
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In all cultures and peoples there are stories of the trickster. In some North American traditions he is known by the form and name of Coyote. He is the energy of mischief and often of danger . . . Coyote has brought me to the edge of disaster, death, and mischief time and time again . . . It has been said that Coyote only lets you see him when he wants you to. For whatever reason, he has let me see him.
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Don't pet a burning dog.
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Gentlemen, we just siezed an airfield. That was pretty ninja.
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ROTC programs at Ivy League campuses would liberalize the military. That can only be good for this country.
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Get some! expresses in two simple words the excitement, fear, feelings of power and the erotic-tinged thrill that come from confronting the extreme physical and emotional challenges posed by death, which is, of course, what war is all about.
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Taking a shit is always a big production in a war zone.
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You find surprising things about the privite life of a country when you invide it.
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Vigorous public ball scratching is common in the combat-arms side of the Marine Corps, even among high-level officers in the midst of briefings.
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One of the few comforts I have when looking at images of distant suffering is the hope that the starving child with flies on his face doesn't know how pathetic he is. If all he knows is misery, maybe his suffering isn't as bad.