Read online ebook Black Hearts : One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death TXT, MOBI
9780307450760 English 0307450767 Black Hearts is the gripping true story of a platoon from the 502nd Infantry Regiment (known as the Black Heart Brigade) and the widespread breakdown of discipline that resulted in depression, drinking, and horrific brutality, culminating in the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her family. This is a story about failure in the chain of command, sagging morale, and the consequences of crossing the thin line of morality in war. Beautifully written and brilliantly researched, Black Hearts is a searing exploration of how and why the war in Iraq went wrong, and what it means for the military and the nation in the years ahead. Book jacket., This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment-a unit known as "the Black Heart Brigade." Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country's most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon-1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion-descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War-the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost-one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives. Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century. From the Hardcover edition.
9780307450760 English 0307450767 Black Hearts is the gripping true story of a platoon from the 502nd Infantry Regiment (known as the Black Heart Brigade) and the widespread breakdown of discipline that resulted in depression, drinking, and horrific brutality, culminating in the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her family. This is a story about failure in the chain of command, sagging morale, and the consequences of crossing the thin line of morality in war. Beautifully written and brilliantly researched, Black Hearts is a searing exploration of how and why the war in Iraq went wrong, and what it means for the military and the nation in the years ahead. Book jacket., This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment-a unit known as "the Black Heart Brigade." Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country's most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon-1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion-descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War-the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost-one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives. Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century. From the Hardcover edition.