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Jarhead

All I can say is that it really isn't the most exciting book I have ever read, but it is by far one of the best. Anthony Swofford really does a good job of painting a picture of what war is like for an average grunt, and the humiliation, torment, and agony a lot of the soldiers go through when fighting wars. The emotional and physical stress that soldiers go through is tremendous, every single facet of their life is hardship. The soldiers constantly have to wrestle with the fact that they don't know where, when, or how they might die. They have to deal with having emotional support severed from them. This happens mostly by finding out their wife or girlfriend has either separated from them, or is cheating on them, and the humiliation and despair that comes with losing their partner. To compound their problems, they are subject to seeing death and destruction all around them. They have to see it, smell it, even taste it. Their lives are small and insignificant, stripped of all identity for the sake of their country, and the huge war machine that they have become a part of. Anyone interested in reading a book not just about war, but about humanity and what real emotion is about, should definitely read Jarhead.

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