Generation Kill

If you haven’t seen Generation Kill yet, you should check it out.  I read Evan Wright’s original book in 2004 or 2005 after I ran across an article he wrote for The Village Voice concerning a “deadchecking” incident during the second battle for Fallujah.  Whatever your views are concerning the War in Iraq, both Wright’s book and the HBO series developed from it are worth a look.  The first two episodes, “Get Some” and “Cradle of Civilization”, have been extremely good. 

The best thing about the series is that it drops the viewer into its subject matter without much pity.  If you’re watching, you better pay attention to the details and figure out some of the coded language on your own.  There’s no CSI-like dialogue providing the technical explanation that those present would already know — that kind of forced, stilted exchange in which characters sometimes perform as though they are giving a presentation to a classroom full of freshmen students.