"The problem is, your thoughts don't come out in any kind of straight order. You don't think."
The narrarator of the story states a very important thing that occurs in the minds of the soldiers and marines. He says that their thoughts are mixed up and from the horror of the war, they can't think straight. They don't actually have time to think because all they have to think about is when are they going to fight and where, and what is going to happen to them. But as they stay more in their deployment, their minds start getting blank, with nothing to think about, even fighting. Phil Klay highlights this point to let the readers know what goes on in a soldier's mind, especially one who is still young.
"It's a crazy feeling when your heart rate is 150 miles per hour and your brain is sliding into sleep and you know when the convoy gets going that if you miss something, it will kill you. And your friends."
The narrarator is representing soldiers who are getting ready to fight the next day. They are supposed to get a good night's sleep and a full rest to get ready for the next day. But how will they do that when they know that this could be their last day, and that a single error could get them or their friends killed? The narrarator is showing that these soldiers are really tired and want to sleep but can't because they are thinking about the next day and their next fight. He says that 'your heart rate is 150 miles per hour' which gives an impression of activity, then says 'your brain is sliding to sleep', which shows how hard it is for the soldiers to sleep and rest even though they need it.
"So (combat)'s 50 percent boredom and 49 percent normal terror...then, of course, there's the 1 percent pure terror."
Soldiers in a real war face two trials: boredom and terror. Boredom because they don't do anything but wait for orders and fight, and when they are not fighting there isn't anything to do except wait for the next fight or think about it. Even though they really don't want to fight, but boredom made them want to. Terror in soldiers is divided to two types: pure terror and normal terror. The normal terror is the terror every soldier in a war faces. It's when they feel that they might die at any second and that they are in a country where everyone inside it wants to kill them. This type of terror is the general one and almost every soldier feels it during his deployment. The pure terror appears in the actual combat, or when a soldier gets hit. It's physical terror, where the hands become white, the heart rate gets very high, and the vision is blurred.
"You're just an animal, doing what you've been trained to do."
Soldiers are trained to do specific things, wait for specific orders, and fight in specific ways. During war, they do not do anything but follow orders. This made them think that they are treated like animals. They do not think or get to refuse an order or they will get themselves killed. Also, they are suddenly placed in locations they did not know about and get asked to fight there. If one of them got killed, it won't differ, just like when an animal dies.
"Give me a Nam with a V, give me the Medal of Honor, it doesn't change that I'm still breathing."
All a soldier thinks about during war is survival. All he cares about is if he is going to live another day. Phil Klay shows that even though soldiers could earn many medals for bravery or being good in combat or be honored some way or another, it won't affect them as surviving would. They will not feel the same happiness when they make sure they survived and when they recieve a medal. In war, medals do not really mean anything to soldiers; they are worthless. This shows how stressful life is for these soldiers that even if they were greatly honored and anyone else would feel very happy for getting a medal or such, they will not feel as happy as they are when they end the war and know that they survived.
"The girl went to prison. For her, it was the best alternative."
Not only did soldiers have a stressful life, but also children and civilians of the country had a worse life. They are innocent people whose homes and country got destroyed and they do not know the reason. From how much Iraq was destroyed and it became unsafe for anyone to go anywhere, the child preferred prison to home. At least she would get food, water, shelter, and protection. All of these things vanished after the war came. She preferred prison because she wasn't sure if her home is the one going to bombed next or after the next. She knew someone would protect her in jail, even if this protection is meant for the reason of not allowing her to escape, but she liked it because she had no protection in her home. She was vulnerable, but in jail she is not.
