“The true cost of war can't be measured in dollars, infrastructure, or body counts. It is tomorrows, wrung out of hope by yesterdays that refuse to retreat, vanish into the smoke of memory.”

“Yesterday influences today, thus creates tomorrow.”

“If all you can promise me is today, I'll take it and hope for tomorrow.”

“Wish you could turn off the questions, turn off the voices, turn off all sound.Yearn to close out the ugliness, close out the filthiness, close out all light.Long to cast away yesterday, cast away memory, cast away all jeapordy.Pray you could somehow stop uncertainty, somehow stop the loathing, somehow stop the pain.Act on your impulse, swallow the bottle, cut a little deeper, put the gun to your chest.”

“Now that I have opened that bottle of memories they're pouring out like wine, crimson and bittersweet.”

“But how many young people truly comprehend the face of war until it's staring them down? You can't patrol unfriendly villages without embracing paranoia. You can't watch your battle buddies blown to bits without jonesing for revenge. You can't take a blow to the helmet without learning to duck. And you can't put people in your crosshairs, celebrate dropping them to the ground, without catching a little bloodlust. Paranoia. Revenge. Bloodlust. These things turn boys into men. But what kind of men?”

“Every high has an equal, measurable low.”