THE RECRUITS
windshield and leaving the driver
mortally wounded and his a passenger torn open but alive, blooddrenched and writhing in pain.
The two Iraqis may have been innocent civilians. The Marines may
have been obeying the strict rules
of engagement, which govern when
deadly force can be used (normally, in cases where the approaching
car is a threat to American life and
the driver refuses several warning
signals to stop). But the damage
was still done.
The only way to absorb such experiences, Van Winkle writes, was
to “make it impersonal and tell
yourself you didn’t give a shit one
way or another, even though you
really did. It would eventually catch
up to you. Sooner or later you’d
have to contend with those sights
and sounds, the blood and flies, but
that wasn’t the place for remorse.
There was too much war left. We
still had H