Phil Klay Bücher

2001 ziehen die USA in den Krieg. Gegen Bin Laden, gegen Hussein, und vor allem gegen den eigenen Bedeutungsverlust. Heute ist Saddam tot, Osama auch, doch die einzige Supermacht ist schwächer als je zuvor. In Wir erschossen auch Hunde erzählt Phil Klay von den jungen Männern, die in diesem Krieg den höchsten Preis zahlen mussten. Es sind knallharte Erzählungen von Häuserkämpfen in Falludscha, aussichtslosen Hilfsmissionen im Irak und dem Heimkehren in ein fremdgewordenes Land. Ein Land, das bei all dem Hintergrundrauschen aus Konsum und Entertainment kein Interesse am Leiden seiner Soldaten hat. Denn ihre traumatischen Erfahrungen beweisen nur die grenzenlose Ohnmacht und lassen etwas erahnen, was noch vor wenigen Jahren unvorstellbar schien: »America is broken, man.« Phil Klay kämpfte als US-Marine im Irak, davon handelt dieses Buch. In Wir erschossen auch Hunde gibt er eine authentische Vorstellung vom Krieg und dem, was er an Angst, Sehnsucht und allerletzter Euphorie mit sich bringt. Damit fragt er zur gleichen Zeit kompromisslos und bildgewaltig nach den Überlebenschancen einer dekadenten Supermacht.

Phil Klay verwandelt seine Erfahrungen als US-Marine in eine weltumspannende Geschichte des Krieges. Er legt ein brillantes erzählerisches Zeugnis ab von den Verheerungskräften der Zivilisation, von Liebe und Hass, Schuld und Stolz in einer globalisierten Welt. Am Ende zählt nur eins: auf der richtigen Seite stehen. Doch für die vier Menschen in dieser Geschichte, alle aus Idealismus an einen Ort der Gewalt im kolumbianischen Dschungel gekommen, ist die Grenze zwischen Gut und Böse längst verronnen. Sie setzen ihr Leben ein – als Mitglied der US-Special-Forces, als Journalistin, Patriot, Paramilitär –, sie kämpfen um das Schicksal eines Landes, dessen Fundamente abgetragen wurden, von falschen Freunden in Washington, den Drogen, jahrzehntelangen Heilsversprechen. Und sie suchen mit aller Kraft Antworten auf eine Frage: Was heilt die Wunden der Geschichte, was lässt den Schmerz vergessen und an das Gute glauben?

"When Phil Klay left the Marines a decade ago, after serving as an officer in Iraq, he found himself part of the community of veterans who have no choice but to grapple with the meaning of their wartime experiences-for themselves and for the country. American identity has always been bound up in war-from the revolutionary war of our founding, to the civil war that ended slavery, to the two world wars that launched America as a superpower. What did the current wars say about who we are as a country, and how should we respond as citizens? Unlike previous eras of war, few other Americans have had to do any real grappling with the endless, invisible wars of the post-9/11 world at all; in fact, increasingly, few people are even aware they are still going on. It's as if there's a dark star with a strong gravitational force that draws a relatively small number of soldiers and their families into its orbit, while remaining inconspicuous to most other Americans. In the meantime, the consequences of American military action abroad may be out of sight and out of mind, but they are very real indeed. This chasm between military and civilian in American life, and the moral blind spot it has created, is one of the great themes of Uncertain Ground, Phil Klay's powerful series of reckonings in essay form over the past ten years with some of our country's thorniest concerns. In the name of what do we ask young Americans to kill, and to die? In the name of what does this country hang together? As we see at every turn in these pages, those two questions have a great deal to do with one another, and how we answer them will go a long way toward deciding where our troubled country goes from here"-- Provided by publisher

"When Phil Klay left the Marines a decade ago, after serving as an officer in Iraq, he found himself part of the community of veterans who have no choice but to grapple with the meaning of their wartime experiences--for themselves and for the country. American identity has always been bound up in war--from the revolutionary war of our founding, to the civil war that ended slavery, to the two world wars that launched America as a superpower. What did the current wars say about who we are as a country, and how should we respond as citizens? Unlike previous eras of war, few other Americans have had to do any real grappling with the endless, invisible wars of the post-9/11 world at all; in fact, increasingly, few people are even aware they are still going on. It's as if there's a dark star with a strong gravitational force that draws a relatively small number of soldiers and their families into its orbit, while remaining inconspicuous to most other Americans. In the meantime, the consequences of American military action abroad may be out of sight and out of mind, but they are very real indeed. This chasm between military and civilian in American life, and the moral blind spot it has created, is one of the great themes of Uncertain Ground, Phil Klay's powerful series of reckonings in essay form over the past ten years with some of our country's thorniest concerns. In the name of what do we ask young Americans to kill, and to die? In the name of what does this country hang together? As we see at every turn in these pages, those two questions have a great deal to do with one another, and how we answer them will go a long way toward deciding where our troubled country goes from here"-- Provided by publisher

"Taking readers to the front lines of the war in Iraq and back, Redeployment asks us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned"--Page 4 of cover