Certainly, when I’d left Iraq back in 2008, I’d been proud of my service, but whether we’d been successful or not was still an open question. Phil Klay Read Quote
War is an arena for the display of courage and virtue. Or war is politics by other means. War is a quasi-mystical experience where you get in touch with the real. There are millions of narratives we impose to try to make sense of war. Phil Klay Read Quote
I have two friends named Matt. They’re both scouts in the cavalry. They both served in the same section of Iraq. They both worked with the same Iraqi translator. And yet, if you talk to them, their stories couldn’t be more different, because one was there in 2006. One was there in 2008. Phil Klay Read Quote
If you’re going to write about war, the ugly side is inevitable. Suffering and death are obviously part of war. Phil Klay Read Quote
There’s something odd about working 24/7, being consumed with everything that’s happening in Iraq, and then coming back to the country that ordered you over there only to realize that a lot of Americans are not really paying attention. Phil Klay Read Quote
I ended up going to Dartmouth, and I did Marine Officer Candidate School during my junior summer. Phil Klay Read Quote
Prayer in a combat zone serves exactly the same purpose as it does in peacetime. In war, the stakes are life and death, true; but if you believe in God and in the notion of a human soul, then we are always making decisions of tremendous significance. Phil Klay Read Quote
