At 19, Your Brain Hasn't Finished Wiring

In My Eyes Marlantes Has Become The Pre-eminent Literary Voice On War Of Our Generation. He Is A Natural Storyteller And A Deeply Profound Thinker Who Not Only Illuminates War For Civilians, But Also Offers A Kind Of Spiritual Guidance To Vets Themselves. As This Generation Of Warriors Comes Home, They Will Be Enormously Helped By What Marlantes Has Written. I’m Sure He Will Literally Save Lives.

Society Can Give Its Young Men Almost Any Job And They'll Figure How To Do It. They'll Suffer For It And Die For It And Watch Their Friends Die For It, But In The End, It Will Get Done. That Only Means That Society Should Be Careful About What It Asks For. ... Soldiers Themselves Are Reluctant To Evaluate The Costs Of War, But Someone Must. That Evaluation, Ongoing And Unadulterated By Politics, May Be The One Thing A Country Absolutely Owes The Soldiers Who Defend Its Borders.

No Matter How Many People You Kill, Using A Machine Gun In Battle Is Not A War Crime Because It Does Not Cause Unnecessary Suffering; It Simply Performs Its Job Horrifyingly Well.

I'm A Good Liberal, And I Grew Up In A Very Liberal Family And Had Very Strongly Held Beliefs.

Ironically, Though Our Society Of Affluence Brings Safety And Stability, It Doesn't Bring Psychological Health. As Wealth Goes Up, Suicide And Depression Rates Tend To Go Up. I Read One Study That Compared Women In North America With Women In Nigeria, And The Group With The Highest Rates Of Depression Was Urban North American Women, Which Is The Wealthiest. Now, There Are Obviously Huge Stresses That Come With Poverty, But The Poorer The Society, The More Collaborative People Have To Be.