The immaculate invasion

About this book

"Bob Shacochis brings to his first major work of reportage the worldview and political vision that have earned him comparisons with Graham Greene and V.S. Naipaul. The Immaculate Invasion is his eyewitness account of the 1994 invasion and occupation of Haiti - an invasion in which the classic military rules of engagement were rewritten to reflect the shifting political philosophies of the late twentieth century." "Based on eighteen months in the field in Haiti - where he bunked, ate, and dodged bullets as a noncombatant with a team of Special Forces commandos - Shacochis's book brings us the stories of the "new military." Here are the most highly trained and sophisticated warriors in history, deployed in a surreal war zone, "where there are no friends and no enemies, no front or rear, no victories and, likewise, no defeats, and no true endings." With the eye of a novelist, Shacochis captures the exploits and frustrations, the inner lives, and the heroic deeds of young Americans as they struggle to bring democracy to a country ravaged by tyranny. This is what it is like to be a soldier in a military environment in which "acceptable losses" has evolved to mean "no losses whatsoever."" "Above all, The Immaculate Invasion is a song of freedom dedicated to not just the Haitian people and their country, but to any culture staggering through the aftershock of twentieth-century imperialism."--Jacket.