This is the story of young men that have been trained to become ruthless killers. The narrative focuses on a platoon of 23 marines, many of them veterans of Afghanistan, whose elite reconnaissance unit spearheaded the blitzkrieg on Iraq. When they speak you get the sense that what they are saying has been carefully scripted.Now 'Generation Kill' tells the soldiers' story in their own words. They are everywhere yet somehow invisible. The troops themselves play a role in the media's presentation of recent wars rather like extras in 'The Triumph of the Will'. As we all know, news accounts of the last two wars focused almost exclusively on battlefield imagery of high-tech weapons wreaking astounding destruction, comply with analysis from retired army grandees and other experts, punctuated by the odd heart-warming patriotic sound-bite. For whatever reason, the media simply doesn't get them. Despite the flurry of media images to come of the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, you have never really met any of these people, who serve as front-line troops. 'Generation Kill' is about the young men sent to fight their nation's first open-ended war since Vietnam. Generation Kill is not just a combat chronicle but an inside look at how people fighting in war actually experience it. They were among the first marines sent into the fight and one of the last units still engaged on the outskirts of Iraq, even after the city centre fell. It's about taking part in a war many questioned before it even began Evan Wright was the only reporter with First Recon, which operated well ahead of most other forces, usually behind enemy lines.

The book tells the soldiers' story in their own words. Generation Kill is about the young men sent to fight their nation's first open-ended war since Vietnam.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright