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Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq QUOTES

Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq QUOTES

1 " Am I awake or dreaming? It doesn’t matter anymore. When I close my eyes I dream of death and war. When I open my eyes I see death and war. "

― Michael Anthony , Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

2 " Other nights I lie in bed and think about everything and anything, and the only thing I can feel is nothing. I think about the war and I feel nothing. I think about life and death, mine and everyone else’s, and I feel nothing. I think about myself and I don’t care if I live or die. On these nights, mortars go off and I won’t get out of bed. I’ll lie in bed as the bombs go off. I tell myself it doesn’t matter if I live or die, nothing matters—I like it when I feel nothing. "

― Michael Anthony , Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

3 " Soon I’ll no longer have to worry about death; now it’s life I have to worry about. It’s now time for me to be a man, and it’s the scariest thing I’ll ever do. It really scares me. It really scares me that I won’t have what it takes. That’s a scary thought. "

― Michael Anthony , Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

4 " Sometimes I go into the hospital and have to do surgery just as the sleeping pills begin to kick in. I spend the rest of the night pinching myself and throwing cold water on my face. At night I tell myself it’s not worth it. I tell myself I hate the Army and wish I’d never joined. I curse the war on both sides, American and Iraqi. I wish everyone would just...die...so that I could go home. "

― Michael Anthony , Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

5 " You are going to war! It is no longer a question of if you are going to go, but a question of when. Look around! In a few years, or even a few months, several of you will be dead. Some of you will be severely wounded or so badly mutilated that your own mother can’t stand the sight of you. And for the real unlucky ones, you will come home so emotionally disfigured that you wish you had died over there. "

― Michael Anthony , Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

6 " I don’t have to worry about what I’ll do on any given day because I already know—I work. All decisions are made for me. The only thing I have to worry about is the possibility of dying. "

― Michael Anthony , Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq