A Marine chronicles his experiences during the first wave of the American-led assault on Baghdad in 2003.
]]>Amazon.comThere's macho?? there's military macho?? and then there's the over-the-top machismo of the Marines. In the HBO miniseries Generation Kill?? one character--a Marine--describes his branch of the military as "rica's pitbull." The seven episodes of Generation Kill follow a battalion of Marines as they lead the invasion of Iraq?? ultimately rolling into Baghdad itself by the last show. The language is dense with obscenities and military jargon?? but it's surprisingly easy to follow?? even if you don't study the glossary that comes in a booklet with the box set. What isn't so easy to distinguish are the characters themselves?? except by surface details: This guy has a hoarse voice?? this guy is an embedded journalist (a stand-in for Evan Wright?? the Rolling Stone reporter who wrote the book the series is based on)?? this guy is a white supremacist?? this guy has a mustache?? this guy is an officer obsessed with the other guy's mustache. The problem is that people are ultimately defined by what they do?? and soldiers in war are all doing pretty much the same thing: Shooting?? swearing?? and sitting around as they wait to shoot and swear some more. But Generation Kill isn't aiming for personal identification; the creators of the series (David Simon and Ed Burns?? producers of the critically-adored The Wire) aim t