Quotes from Mark Bowden

Have you been reading anything in the paper about Hue? It is supposed to be big news in the states. Well that's where I am. It is supposed to be some of the worst fighting that has been fought in the war. If it isn't it will be plenty for me. I can't really say how bad it has been. We've lost a hell of a lot of people. . . . This house to house fighting is a son of a bitch. I've never been so scared in all my life.

The absurd body counts and kill ratios were proof of his leadership. He sold them to LBJ, who in turn presented them as fact to the American people.

like textual glossolalia.

They remain, by definition, so far as the stereotype goes, odd, remote, reputed to be borderline autistic, and generally opaque to anyone outside their own tribe—They are mutants, born with abilities far beyond those of normal humans. The late M.I.T. professor Joseph Weizenbaum identified and described the species back at the dawn of the digital age, in his 1976 book Computer Power and Human Reason:

Bowman immediately went to work, writing furiously in his notepad. A staff colonel asked what he was doing, and the major said, "I'm making a wish list." If he'd read the scene correctly, he said, "We are going to get called in to see General Tolson in about fifteen minutes, and we're about to get everything we need.

Ali Shariati and others, who subscribed to the traditional leftist belief that capitalism was, at its core, the systematic exploitation of the weak

the rank and file had sized up the coming fight inside the Citadel as the shit storm to end all shit storms.

although it is true that after three weeks of heavy fighting the enemy was driven off, it was the impact of the initial blow that resonated most loudly.

anyone who asserts so often that he is telling the truth probably isn't.

So they turned around and retraced their trip as morning dawned, eventually reentering the southern gate at Phu Bai. At about 8:30, more than four hours since they had been awakened to board the trucks and go south, they came barreling straight through the base and exited the north gate—confirming suspicion inside the trucks that no one in charge had a clue.

Tanks were vulnerable unless surrounded by infantry to prevent attackers from getting too close, so he ordered his men off the trucks—which offered little cover anyway.

The ratio of men killed in battle is becoming more favorable to our side. From a little better than two to one last January, the ratio has climbed to more than six to one in favor of our side."20 Westy argued that the ratio so heavily favored allied forces that in time the mounting toll would buckle Hanoi's resolve.

The system did not punish offenders the way she believed they ought to be punished.

Today there is big money for those who can stealthily invade computer networks, or construct a secure botnet, and no modern military arsenal is complete without state-of-the-art malware.

who opposed Hanoi not so much on ideological grounds, but because of its methods. They had seen the VC execute or imprison leaders who did not fall in line.

She told them that the peace and freedom promised by the nguy and their American controllers was illusory. Their country was at war and would remain at war until the invaders and traitors were gone. The real Vietnam would rise she said. It would be united. She envisioned a future where the free Vietnamese people worked together to improve life for all.

Who doesn't love a mystery solved? It creates order from disorder, salves our ache for moral balance. An unsolved mystery is like a stone in your shoe.

There is a very strange contradiction in what we are saying and doing," said Clark Clifford in a meeting on February 9 with the president and his top military advisers. Clifford

Anh yeu em, or "I Love You.

How do you bomb a nation into the Stone Age when, in modern industrial terms, they are not that far removed from it?

Many of those who survived are still paying for it. To me the way they were used, particularly the way their idealism and loyalty were exploited by leaders who themselves had lost faith in the effort, is a stunning betrayal. It is a lasting American tragedy and disgrace.

He knew there was no road map for this session. That was not how interrogation worked. Conversations were improvisational.

It's what you do right now that makes a difference.

These problems have been here so long that the only way I've been able to function at all is by learning to ignore them. Else I would be in a constant state of panic, unable to think or act constructively.