When I first came back from Iraq, I of course found myself thinking a lot about it. Not just my experiences, but those of people I talked to, friends, and colleagues.
From Phil Klay
A lot of the great pieces of journalism from Iraq showed how important command influence was in violent, aggressive environments, where Marines and soldiers had a constrained set of choices to make in sudden moments.
I grew up a little north of New York City and went to high school at Regis, an all-boys tuition-free high school in Manhattan.
I ended up going to Dartmouth, and I did Marine Officer Candidate School during my junior summer.
There's something odd about working 24/7, being consumed with everything that's happening in Iraq, and then coming back to the country that ordered you over there only to realize that a lot of Americans are not really paying attention.
I did try to write in Iraq, and I failed. I think you just don't have the brain space for it.
War is complicated and intense, and it takes time and thoughts to understand what it was.
I have, for a very long time, been a huge admirer of Marilynne Robinson, whose work I just love.
Fiction is the best way I know how to think something through.
You come back from war, and you have a certain authority to talk about war.
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