War

Not my usual area of interest but came across this book cheap in a charity shop and was intrigued. It is an odd one. I'm not sure if the author wanted to come across as having sociopathic tendencies but that is the effect with his admission that he enjoyed killing people, especially Iraqis opposed to the invasion of their country by Western troops.

It isn't just hindsight to think that the invasion was a big mistake: plenty of people thought so at the time. There are sufficient previous examples of countries ruled by ruthless dictators which break apart into war between rival factions as soon as that leader is removed. And in this case, they were initially united by opposition to Western invaders. The author certainly had no philosophical musings about this or even the occasional thought: he just seemed gleeful to be given carte blanche to shoot 'the enemy'. Rather disturbing. And his casual admission of involvement in bar fights, something he was usually excused, shows a short fuse and an enjoyment of casual violence. His only regrets revolve around friends who sadly lost their lives or received major life-changing injuries (which later led to death in one case). He quite openly put fighting with his comrades ahead of family life, and his wife made contributions to the book about how this affected her although she didn't receive a writer's credit.

Hopefully he wasn't typical of the people who join the armed forces. Certainly he was very different to people I've known who fought in military conflicts and rarely wanted to talk about it, far less boast. So for me this is an OK 2 stars at best. ( )

I love military books. I tried to like this one & I just didn't. I've seen the movie (pretty good) and then read the book. I don't disagree the Chris is heroic and saved a lot of lives and it's a tragedy that he was killed by another military person. This first hand account is just ugh. Almost the entire time of "being a sniper & we live in the shadows & are silent professionals", Chris spends almost the entire book bragging about how many kills of insurgents (or savages as he calls them) and then so many kills he stepped back so he could let the other guys in the platoon get a few. Also brags about fighting and getting arrested and getting out of jail with no charges. His wife contributed the the book a lot and I felt sorry for her since he cared more about the SEAL team and country before his wife and 2 kids. Also disrespect to higher up officers who he called "ultra cautious pussies" It just seemed this book was him telling how great he is and didn't really seem to care about his wife on her own and just kept reenlisting. Good for him at the end for finally leaving the Navy and starting a kick ass foundation to help wounded vets. ( )

4.89/5 ( )

Movie was amazing, but was just not that well written, but great documentation of the reality for this solider. ( )