So I bought this book, Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell (and quasi-ghost writer Patrick Robinson), on a whim in an airport bookstore. It’s clearly a tale of a major military clusterfuck in which everyone dies (except that one) so I thought, oh hell yeah. This is for me. I was meant to have this book.

 

The writing isn’t anything that you couldn’t see in a high school AP class or college composition, but the actual story seems to be a good one.

 

Except I have to wade through the conservative propaganda military bullshit (and Luttrell’s seemingly endless bravado):

  • “There are no other passengers on board, just the flight crew and, in the rear, us, headed out to do God’s work on the behalf of the U.S. government and our commander in chief, President George W. Bush.”
  • Referring to the established rules of engagement, which prohibit American soldiers from firing the first shot (unless the “enemy” has clear intentions of assault on troops). “That situation might look simple in Washington, where the human rights of terrorists are often given high priority. And I am certain liberal politicians would defend their position to the death. Because everyone knows liberals have never been wrong about anything. You can ask them. Anytime.” Rage when I read this b/c the only thing Bush says he’d do differently about the war is not have hung the sign, “Mission Accomplished,” so early.
  • Luttrell is intolerant of just the idea that every person on this planet is given basic human rights and is indignant, if not plainly outraged, that  the public and politicians would dare challenge the all-knowing military and its methods. Murdering everyone is clearly the answer. “This entire business of modern war crimes, as identified by the liberal wings of politics and the media, began in Iraq and has been running downhill ever since. Everyone’s got to have his little hands in it, blathering on about the public’s right to know. Well, in the view of most Navy SEALs, the public does not have a right to know, not if it means placing our lives in unnecessary peril.” Let’s not point a finger at the president, who might start a vendetta war that puts soldiers in harm’s way “unnecessarily.”
  • A joke: “I am not a political person.”

 

Sigh.