[August 19, 2008] David Simon, the crabby genius who brought us The Wire on HBO, has managed to outdo himself. With the help of his writing partner, Ed Burns and guided by the original work of Rolling Stones reporter Evan Wright, through Generation Kill we are seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling and hearing--mostly hearing--the grit and gore of the Marine 1st Reconnaissance Battalion's advance of the "first U.S. boots on the ground in Mesopotamia." And I love every word of it.
I feel like a voyeur, watching with both horror and glee, men be men. Listening to them speak in arcane military speak, ruthlessly rib each other, go sleepless and bathless and dig holes to do their business, not the least self-conscious. Sweaty, filthy brothers in arms.
I marvel at their training, the lethal accuracy of their bullets, the shape they are in and cringe watching the chain-of-command bitchiness and foolishness that creeps in, threatening to undermine or ruin the rational and earnest Lieutenant Nate Fick. Sometimes I get angry at the incompetence that is covered over or allowed to slip sideways: Captain "Encino Man" and "Captain America" come to mind. Idiots in charge while my favorite grunts Corporal Ray Person and Sergeant Brad "Iceman" Colbert ride point, take the flak and do their best to stay on task, even when the task is a waste of time and resources.
I love Generation Kill because, through the words, the gestures and expressions of the characters, we are reminded how incompetents kill. How bureaucracies harbor and even promote them. That those who would question authority have to find support in sick humor and camaraderie because the outcomes of stupid egos run amok are wincingly painful. No different than The Wire's Avon Barksdale boys taking each other out over territory; the Mayor of Baltimore reneging on his promise to let the police do real policing and not juke the stats; kids slipping through the cracks in the schools; no different than newspaper reporters making up stories or cops faking serial murders.
But mostly I love Generation Kill because it arrives at a time the whole country needs to see up close and bloody what going into Iraq--without a plan, without the right equipment, without any thought to exit strategy--was really like and what it has wrought. We've all had our heads in a recession-fearing fog and even before then, we partied through the war. Busy consuming and wasting and inflating home prices by buying what we could not afford.
Maybe Generation Kill--showing up and finishing just before the Democrats nominate Barack Obama and the Republicans nominate John McCain--will resonate a little with those of us watching those spectacles. Maybe we'll begin to see that what we've started in Iraq--never mind the reasons, they are now irrelevant--we must finish. We must find a way for those thousands of U.S. troops to come home where we will treat their wounded minds and bodies, welcome and thank them for their service and hope that history will not punish us more than we deserve. And next time we send such well-trained human forces into battle, let's for God's sake know why and have a plan. For more on the seven part mini-series go to http://www.hbo.com/generationkill/
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