David Axe - War is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the Worlds Worst War Zones

War is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the Worlds Worst War Zones — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "War is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the Worlds Worst War Zones" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234

Table of Contents

New American Library
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2,
Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124,
Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632,
New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

First published by New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, August 2010

Copyright David Axe and Matt Bors, 2010

eISBN : 978-1-101-45885-3

Introduction Ted Rail, 2010
All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK-MARCA REGISTRADA

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHERS NOTE

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

http://us.penguingroup.com

For Moqtar Hirabe, gunned down by Somali insurgents in Mogadishu in June 2009 and for all the other fixers, stringers, interpreters, drivers and guards whove risked their lives, and sometimes given them, to help us reporters do our jobs.

INTRODUCTION

BY TED RALL

Like a moth to the flame.

Every year or so, David Axe seeks out the worlds hottest and nastiest conflict zones. He doesnt exactly try to get himself killed. But hes not afraid of dying.

Invariably, the good bad times end. Sometimes peace breaks out. More often, things get too hot. Money runs out. Armed goons who call themselves the authorities deport him. David heads home. And its good.

Its good. For a while. Maybe only a few days. If war is boring, peace is stultifying. Or is it America? Or home?

Whatever the reason, David soon finds himself working the phones, dialing for expense-account dollars so he can get himself shot at by, usually, who knows?

And its partly my fault. Not Davids death wishwhether this cynical young man was hard-wired for fatalism or his parents did something to him, it has nothing to do with mebut his novel means of expressing it. War first found me drinking Nes caf at an outdoor caf in Kazakhstan; Western troops were fighting a bizarre secret war against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who were attacking a British Petroleum oilfield. Two years later, I blundered into the start of the Kargil Conflict, also known as the Third Kashmir War, in a high-altitude village along the Karakoram Highway.

As I feasted on hard naan bread and Kashmiri chai served in a banged-up metal cup, an Indian mortar smashed into a store up the street. The proprietor of the tea house ran outside, shaking his fist. Indian motherfuckers! he screamed in Urdu. He stolled to my table. Another Coke? he asked, his seconds-old rage instantly cooled.

I loved that. Death and life, hatred and normalcy, so closely intertwined. Thats what you find in Third World shitholes, particularly Third World shitholes where people are shooting at one another. In America, of course, death is always present. But we dont see it. When is the last time you saw a body lying in the street? Or anywhere? Reality is best when its out in the open.

Another couple of years, then 9/11. I went to Afghanistan to cover the U.S. invasion. Thats true. I went to learn the truth. Thats also true. But I mainly went to test myself. To risk death. To get that thrill, that War Fix as David called it in his previous tome, that comes with a close brush with The End. I got what I came for. I dodged mortars, bombs, bullets, and a couple of ambushes. I have never felt more alive.

Which is the flip side of Davids death wish. He doesnt really want to die. He really wants to live. To feel alive.

Maybe just to feel.

The typical existence of a generic middle-class American citizen doesnt allow anyone to feel anything: bland, dull, cut-and-pasted, like the mall zombies in Dawn of the Dead. Rage, terror, vengeance, giddiness arent allowed. Must. Maintain. Calm.

I came back from Afghanistan. I wrote a book. People bought it. David was one of them.

My book wasnt the only reason he wanted to become a war correspondent (or war tourist, as I call it). But it was a contributing factor.

What if David dies in some war zone? I may feel guilty, but I doubt it. Not a day passes without me wishing I was in the shit somewhere, miserable and scared and bored. How could I begrudge my friend the same thrill?

Ted Rall is a cartoonist, columnist, and author of To Afghanistan and Back: A Graphic Travelogue, and Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?

PROLOGUE

IRAQ

Next page

1234

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «War is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the Worlds Worst War Zones»

Look at similar books to War is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the Worlds Worst War Zones. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Judson Carmichael

The Scared Stiff

David Williams

In the Shadow of the Titanic: The Worlds Worst Merchant Ship Disasters

Jenna Lucado Bishop

From Blah to Awe: Shaking Up a Boring Faith

John Hambrick

Move Toward the Mess: The Ultimate Fix for a Boring Christian Life

Tracey Turner

Worlds Worst Jobs

Roach

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Roach

Stiff

Bors Matt

War is boring: bored stiff, scared to death in the worlds worst war zones

Shinsuke Yoshitake

The Boring Book

Belinda Boring [Boring

Blood and Damnation

Sara Latta

Scared Stiff: Everything You Need to Know About 50 Famous Phobias

Wendy Corsi Staub

Scared to Death

Discussion, reviews of the book War is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the Worlds Worst War Zones and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.