Rating

★★★★☆

Category

non-fiction

Read

2023-06-11

Pages

480

Fascinating bio combined with a pointed critique of the US military’s handling of friendly fire investigations. Would have been ever better if I knew the first thing about NFL and could have followed some of the play-by-plays early in the book.

21 percent of the casualties in World War II were attributable to friendly fire, 39 percent of the casualties in Vietnam, and 52 percent of the casualties in the first Gulf War. Thus far in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, casualty rates are 41 percent and 13 percent, respectively. All these figures are conservative estimates, moreover; due to endemic underreporting of fratricide by the military, the actual percentages are unquestionably higher.