"I Feel Like Dr Phil With Guns "

[Boom_70]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/magazine/24afghanistan-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin

Anyone read this story by Elizabeth Rubin in Sunday Times Magazine. Pretty wild stuff with almost Apocalypse Now quality . It is about Ranger unit stationed in remote Afghanistan outpost.

Kind of surprised that it has not been more talked about.

 

[jgmacg]

This is an extraordinary piece. Every writer on this board needs to read it.

 

[MartinEnigmatica]

I set aside some time to read this a few days after it came out, but somehow missed this thread. Agreed, jg, it is excellent. One particular passage that stuck with me is below, which came right after the quote about Dr. Phil with Guns.

One full-moon night I was sitting outside a sandbag-reinforced hut with Kearney when a young sergeant stepped out hauling the garbage. He looked around at the illuminated mountains, the dust, the rocks, the garbage bin. The monkeys were screeching. “I hate this country!” he shouted. Then he smiled and walked back into the hut. “He’s on medication,” Kearney said quietly to me.

Then another soldier walked by and shouted, “Hey, I’m with you, sir!” and Kearney said to me, “Prozac. Serious P.T.S.D. from last tour.” Another one popped out of the HQ cursing and muttering. “Medicated,” Kearney said. “Last tour, if you didn’t give him information, he’d burn down your house. He killed so many people. He’s checked out.”

 

[Boom_70]

This is an extraordinary piece. Every writer on this board needs to read it.

Extraordinary is right. Just stunned there is not more buzz about this story. I can't imagine that the Army Ranger brass is happy about the story.

 

[goalmouth]

W.C. Heinz meets the Taliban.

Of course, her material wrote itself.