Summary of Phil Klay's Uncertain Ground

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I have always been drawn to the stories of violence in Iraq, even though I was never in any danger myself. I feel that by not talking about these experiences, we are failing to process them.
#2 I was given two weeks’ leave halfway through my deployment, and I went home to New York. At one point, I walked down Madison Avenue near where it intersects with Broadway. Suddenly, I felt the urge to weep. The images came back not as photographs, but as living memories.
#3 I was not there when the photos were taken, but I still remember the emotions they sparked in me. I feel guilty about the sorrow I feel because I know it is manufactured, and I feel guilty about the sorrow I do not feel because it is owed, it is the barest beginning of what is owed to the fallen.
#4 The day Osama bin Laden died, I learned that one of my former Marines was permanently blind. The Iraq War and the Afghanistan surge were both based on the success of the Iraq surge, which was an outgrowth of previous Iraq policy.

Sujets

• Essays

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 25 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822547810
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Phil Klay's Uncertain Ground
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I have always been drawn to the stories of violence in Iraq, even though I was never in any danger myself. I feel that by not talking about these experiences, we are failing to process them.

#2

I was given two weeks’ leave halfway through my deployment, and I went home to New York. At one point, I walked down Madison Avenue near where it intersects with Broadway. Suddenly, I felt the urge to weep. The images came back not as photographs, but as living memories.

#3

I was not there when the photos were taken, but I still remember the emotions they sparked in me. I feel guilty about the sorrow I feel because I know it is manufactured, and I feel guilty about the sorrow I do not feel because it is owed, it is the barest beginning of what is owed to the fallen.

#4

The day Osama bin Laden died, I learned that one of my former Marines was permanently blind. The Iraq War and the Afghanistan surge were both based on the success of the Iraq surge, which was an outgrowth of previous Iraq policy.

#5

The highway north of Fallujah was a four-lane road. The Marines started to cross it, one platoon running at full speed, the others firing away, filling the sky above with bullets. Insurgents on the other side opened fire as well.

#6

In this view, the purest reflection of the quality of our society is found in the courage of its military. When Donald Trump addressed the widow of a fallen Navy SEAL in February 2017, he didn’t articulate a vision of American ideals, but simply defended his claim that the raid in which the SEAL was killed had been a success.

#7

If the courage of young men and women in battle depends on the quality of our civic society, we should be very worried. We should expect to see a sickness spreading from our public life and into the hearts of the men and women who continue to risk their lives on behalf of a distracted nation.

#8

The question a Marine is asked is, If I am, like Sergeant Wells and Gunny Shane, facedown and bleeding to death in the middle of an open highway, will you run out to save my life. If the Marine doesn’t feel like their fellow Marines will save them, they won’t run out to save their fellow Marines.

#9

As a black man in America, Decaul was accustomed to putting his shoulder to the wheel alongside people who had lynched and tortured men like him in the past. Nothing about this was fair, but he accepted it and did his job.

#10

However, the most important factor in the military is a shared commitment to a task, not interpersonal attraction.

#11

When a threat is existential, the qualities you value in an individual shift. Marines like Decaul weren’t willing to work with a Klansman and a drug addict in spite of the fact that their lives might be on the line, but they were willing to work with them because their lives were on the line.

#12

I was a firm believer in the mission, and I had cause to be. I had driven down Route Fran, past where Lonny Wells had died, past where many other Marines had died, or lost limbs, or had their face burned beyond recognition. But back home, a raucous debate about military policy was under way.

#13

For me, and many other Marines, the debates in Congress proved that our presence mattered. The heat of the arguments made clear that the policy and our presence mattered.

#14

I chose to get out of the Corps and go to grad school. In my first year there, I found out that one Marine I had known had died in the blast from a roadside bomb. I learned that a Marine I’d worked with closely had been hit by an improvised explosive device and taken shrapnel to his eyes that left him partially blind.

#15

The incoherence has deepened under President Trump. To ensure that victories against enemies like ISIS result in long-term stability and the suppression of new terrorist groups, the military has consistently articulated a vision of intergovernmental cooperation.

#16

The US has been successful in eliminating terrorist groups, but we have moved backwards in terms of policy and commitment.