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Abstract

The figure of the marine is not only the embodiment of US militarism, but also a major icon of popular culture. The Marine Corps was prominently deployed in the invasion of Iraq, as it has been in all major US military enterprises. But while there has been much and ongoing discussion about that war, less attention has been paid to its increasing impact on mainstream American culture. In this groundbreaking account, the author reviews and analyses the ever-growing body of literature produced by marines themselves. The article reveals a disturbing picture of pornographic violence, certainty in US military right and, crucially, an increasing turn to rightwing Christian fundamentalism as both imperative and justification for the war.

Keywords

Carey Cash Carlos Hathcock Christian fundamentalism Donovan Campbell Fallujah Ilario Pantano Jack Coughlin Seth Folsom Tyler Boudreau Vietnam war

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References

James A. Warren , American Spartans (New York, Free Press, 2005). There are hundreds of books on the US Marine Corps and its history.

Steven Pressfield , Gates of Fire (London, Bantam, 2000) and The Afghan Campaign ( London, Doubleday, 2007); David J. Danelo,Blood Stripes (Mechanicsburg, Stackpole, 2006).

Seth Folsom , The Highway War (Washington, DC, Potomac, 2006), pp. 12, 73, 194, 235-6, 242, 354.

Jack Coughlin, Shooter (New York, St Martins Griffin, 2006), pp. 28, 29, 74, 80, 83, 204, 223. Other marine sniper books include Charles Henderson,Marine Sniper: 93 confirmed kills(New York, Stein and Day, 1986); Roy Chandler, Carlos Hathcock: ‘Whitefeather’ (New York, Iron Brigade, 2000); Joseph Ward, Dear Mom: a sniper’s Vietnam(New York, Ballantine, 1991); Craig Roberts, The Walking Dead (New York, Grafton, 1990); three volumes entitled Death from Afar produced by Roy and Norman Chandler (New York, Iron Brigade, 1992, 1993, 1994); and many others. Craig Roberts has also written a book on the Kennedy assassination from a sniper’s perspective, The Kill Zone: a sniper looks at Dealey Plaza(New York, Consolidated Press International, 1994). There are also two compilation volumes of marine sniper interviews and reminiscences from Iraq: Mike Tucker, Ronin(Mechanicsburg, Stackpole Books, 2008); Milo S. Afong, Hogs in the Shadows (New York, Caliber, 2007).

See, in particular, Esther Kaplan, With God on Their Side: George W. Bush and the Christian Right (New York, New Press, 2004).

Carey H. Cash , A Table in the Presence (Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2004), pp. 70, 162.

Glenn Thomas , God Saw Them Through (Lake Mary, FL, Creation House, 2004), pp. 37, 37, 61, 127.

Cash, op. cit., pp. 109-11, 204-15.

Bing West and Ray L. Smith,The March up: taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division( London, Pimlico, 2003 ), pp. 120-1, 169.

10.

Stephen Mansfield ,The Faith of the American Soldier ( New York, Tacher, 2005 ), pp. 9-10, 33.

11.

Evan Wright , Generation Kill: living dangerously on the road to Baghdad with the ultraviolent Marines of Bravo Company( London, Bantam, 2004).

12.

Thomas Mockaitis , Iraq and the Challenge of Counterinsurgency (Westport, CT, Praeger Security , 2008), p. x. There is a large body of literature on the military fiasco that the occupation became. The later ‘surge’ that supposedly turned the war round is mythical, in my opinion, and it was political rather than military factors that were crucial.

13.

Ilario Pantano , Warlord: no better friend, no worse enemy (New York, Threshold, 2006), pp. 43, 139, 198, 199, 246, 247, 367.

14.

Donovan Campbell, Joker One: a Marine platoon’s story of courage, leadership, and brotherhood (New York, Random House, 2009), pp. 6-7, 98, 99, 188, 189, 229, 235-6, 302.

15.

Tyler Boudreau, Packing Inferno: the unmaking of a Marine(Port Townsend, Feral House, 2008), pp. 24-5, 42, 55, 75, 78, 98, 154, 204-5, 206. Boudreau’s website is available at: <http://www. tylerboudreau.com>. For Oliver Poole’s account of his visit to the marines in Haditha, see his Red Zone (London, Reportage Press, 2008), pp. 121-7. One interesting observation he makes about US troops more generally is that he ‘saw an awful lot of soldiers reading the books of Tim Lahaye’ (p. 116). As he points out, these remarkably popular novels are a cultural phenomenon in the US, but are virtually unknown elsewhere. They are Christian fundamentalist apocalyptic thrillers, both seriously weird and incredibly reactionary.

Taking Baghdad: some US Marine memoirs of the invasion of Iraq

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