Weapons of Mass Destruction

For patriots like Billy Sinclair, the Iraq War started on 9/11. He is primed to kill in the backwoods of Montana, hunting with his buddy Pete under the tutelage of his grandfather, a decorated World War II veteran. When they kill their first deer, Grandpa smears its blood on their faces in honor of Pete s great-great-grandfather, a Sioux scout who corralled the first wild horses bearing the Sinclair brand. A more sublime boyhood is unimaginable, a more tragic adolescence unthinkable. Nobody sees it coming. Pete's inexplicable suicide steels Sinclair s resolve to join the Marines. The moral certainty of the war on terror fills the void left by his best friend s death. But Sinclair s faith falters when his platoon is forced to attack equivocal targets in Fallujah: mosques, cemeteries, and countless homes. Urban combat is tough enough without being haunted by the specters of defenseless women, let alone children. Sinclair summons his training, holding his doubts at bay until a suicide bomber triggers flashbacks to the role he unwittingly played in Pete s death. His own survival will ultimately depend on solving the riddle posed by these two suicides mirror images of self-destructive compulsions at home and abroad.