Quotes from Mark Bowden

No one gets left behind, you know that.

Sometimes the fate of an entire nation can hinge on the integrity of one man.

Do me a favor, okay? Tell my parents that I fought well today. And tell them that I... that I... that I fought hard.

I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake, evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have stopped Hitler's armies. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism—it is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

Excited. In a good way. I've been training my whole life for this.

The joke Colombians told was that God had made their land so beautiful, so rich in every natural way, that it was unfair to the rest of the world; He had evened the score by populating it with the most evil race of men.

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

They had traveled the world, to Korea, Thailand, Central America ... they knew each other better than most brothers did.

I'm not a ranger, I'm a pilot.

Mogadishu was like the postapocalyptic world of Mel Gibson's Mad Max movies, a world ruled by roving gangs of armed thugs. They were here to rout the worst of the warlords and restore sanity and civilization.

The great hope of the Tet Offensive was that its very size and daring would trigger a surge of nationalism that would transcend barriers of ideology, class, and faith.

In the world's most dangerous country, the job of going after Pablo was the most dangerous position of all.

whirlwind of war.

It is harder to defend a computer than to attack it.

Four specific missions were assigned: to spy on the nguy and American forces in the city; to recruit civilians to join the uprising and provide support; to train them with weapons and tactics; and to build a committed core who, when the battle began, would carry the wounded to medical stations in the rear and help feed the army. Weapons, ammo, food, and medical provisions all would be smuggled, stockpiled, and made ready.

John Updike once said that he was confused by the very concept of "antiwar," which he felt, and I'm paraphrasing him here, was like being "anti-food" or "anti-sex," since war was such an essential element of human experience.

Westin celebrated the New Year by shooting off some hand flares. Orders were "no fireworks," but you couldn't expect several hundred thousand men in a war zone, armed to the teeth with explosive devices, to follow an order like that.

But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could. This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.

When Gonzalez and Canley were close enough to the machine gun they called for suppressing fire and then stood and hurled grenades. At the blast, they charged, firing their rifles on automatic, silencing the gun.

The director Stanley Kubrick, no doubt attracted by the unusual visuals of urban combat, set Full Metal Jacket in Hue, although in his film the battle is just a backdrop.