The Kill Switch (Kindle Single)

The Kill Switch (Kindle Single)

What does it mean to kill for your country? How do you learn how to do it? What does it feel like in the moment? Once the killing starts, how do you control it? And what happens when you kill the wrong person, or donâ€™t kill someone you wish you had, or look back, years later, at the people you killed? America has been at war in two countries for more than a decade. The killing that has been done and is being done is a crucial aspect of war and an integral part of the memories servicemen bring home with them. And yet, with few exceptions, itâ€™s only rarely discussed in public and largely left to the veterans themselves to process, wrestle with, and carry.

This is unfortunate because to understand what war is and what war does, it is necessary to understand what killing is and what killing does. In â€œThe Kill Switch,â€ writer Phil Zabriskie, who covered both Iraq and Afghanistan for Time and other magazines, reconnects with two Marines and other veterans he met in Iraq and finds them ready to talk about it and willing to examine soberly and honestly what theyâ€™ve done and were asked to do. From boot camp through the initial invasion to the crucible of Ramadi, the siege of Fallujah, and beyond, they recount firefights, ambushes, suicide car bombers, hand-to-hand combat, and the life and death decisions they made about Saddamâ€™s soldiers, battle-hardened insurgents, and people, even children, who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unflinching and as important today as it was at the height of these wars, â€œThe Kill Switchâ€ will stay with you long after youâ€™re finished, just as the wars these men foughtâ€”and the killing they didâ€”have stayed with them.

Phil Zabriskie is a New York-based writer who spent many years working across Asia and the Middle East. He reported extensively on Americaâ€™s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for Time magazine and has also written about conflict and its impact on the people who live through it for National Geographic, Fortune, the Washington Post Magazine, and other publications.

Cover design by Kristen Radtke.
Country USA
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2014-11-02
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2014-11-02
Format	Kindle eBook

The Kill Switch (Kindle Single)

You might also like...