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Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, And Dying (2012)

by Sönke Neitzel(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0307958124 (ISBN13: 9780307958129)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Knopf

review 1: Disturbing book as it shows how thin the line is between 'normal' civilised peacetime behaviour and (also normal) wartime behavior and thinking.The best example was at the very end of the book where the attack by American soldiers in Iraq was described from an Apache attack helicopter against unarmed civilians and it was shown how their state of mind was so pre-conditioned that there was hardly any possibility for them to see those unarmed civilians as anything else than armed insurgents. The pipe one of the men was carrying was no pipe, didn't even look like a pipe, but because the Americans operated in a high threat environment and were on the lookout for rebels, the pipe WAS a RPG-7 shoulder launched rocket.This switch in perception is what is a recurring topic in the b... moreook, the more or less industrialized "work" view soldiers have of their handiwork of fighting and killing.An intriguing book as well as the soldiers who were eavesdropped upon were candid in their opinions against their fellow soldiers and POW's and thus used hardly any political correct language.You never know for sure if they talk the truth in what they are telling, but it mostly was their true opinion or vision on war, warfare and their fellow soldiers that was aired.
review 2: This book was full of challenging content. A psychologist's view of conversations covertly recorded between German POW's in camps in England and the US. Having read many books on war and knowing how many prisoners were killed out of hand during battles and the violence visited on unarmed civilians - it was even more depressing to read as a voyeur on a wartime conversation describing these events in detail, recalled by first and second-hand by witnesses of this brutality. Neitzel's viewpoint gave a good insight into the minds of these POWs and the content of their conversations. A chilling read. less

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