Quotes by Mark Bowden

“He essentially betrayed many of those people who had relied on him.”

“Qusay [was] reputed to be a far quieter, more disciplined figure [than Uday].”

“In order to make it more difficult for people to tell exactly where he [was], all the palaces [functioned] as though [he were] present.”

“I remember sitting on my back porch, starting to read it, and thinking, I wonder what this is about?”

“Catch-22 undermines the whole heroic logic of World War II, ... It was really refreshing and interesting for me, as a young man learning about modern history and literature, to see how powerful a single writer could be in undermining the whole social mind-set.”

“The question posed by Yossarian in Catch-22, ... is one of the great questions of modern times: Is this huge industrial military that weve constructed, has it become more deadly and powerful than the cause for which is was constructed?”

“Theres just a stench of things rotting, decaying - dead seafood, poultry, other things I cant talk about. It gets into your nose; it gets into your clothes. You cant get away from it.”

“Im tired of the FEMA-bashing. All you hear is that FEMA didnt do enough. What people dont understand is that FEMA had a game plan, but when the devastation was so widespread, their game plan kind of went out the window.”

“If you go down there and see that, and youre not more appreciative of what youve got and how lucky you are, there is something wrong with you.”

“There were signs everywhere saying, If you loot, we shoot, ... The first looter we had, they had ripped his ear off. They really tore him up.”

Its what you do right now that makes a difference.

No one gets left behind, you know that.

As Donilon [President Obamas security advisor] would tell me, Obama said: Heres the deal. I want this hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to come to the front of the line. I worry that the trail has gone cold. This has to be our top priority and it needs leadership in the tops of your organizations. You need to ensure that we have expended every effort to take down the top leadership of al Qaeda, especially these two individuals. And I want regular reports on this *to me* and I want them starting in thirty days.Donilon followed up and drove and drove the point home with a memo, which the president signed. He sent it to each of those present. It read: In order to ensure that we have extended every effort - directly provide to me a detailed operational plan for locating and bringing to justice Osama bin Laden.

Do me a favor, okay? Tell my parents that I fought well today. And tell them that I... that I... that I fought hard.

Excited. In a good way. Ive been training my whole life for this.