Character Analysis
The colonel seems like quite the tough guy...and maybe not the most likeable one. For example, he decides that an injured Iraqi man (who's possibly a sniper) is a goner, even though another soldier suggests the guy's wounds are perfectly survivable. It seems as if the colonel doesn't want to help the guy survive—and when we hear gunshots off-screen right after Reed makes his pronouncement, it seems like Reed has basically ordered the guy's death.
Yeah, we get that this guy might have been the sniper who blew up a car while Will was approaching it, but that's some serious taking of justice into your own hands.
Reed goes completely bananas for Will, probably because Will's whole bad-boy-breaking-the-rules thing fits in with his own macho shtick:
COLONEL: You the guy in the flaming car, Sergeant James?
WILL: Afternoon, sir. Uh, yes, sir.
COLONEL: Well, that's just hot s***. You're a wild man, you know that? He's a wild man, you know that? I want to shake your hand.
WILL: Thank you, sir.
COLONEL: Yeah. How many bombs have you disarmed?
WILL: Uh, I'm not quite sure.
COLONEL: Sergeant?
WILL: Yes, sir.
COLONEL: I asked you a question.
WILL: 873, sir.
COLONEL: Eight hundred! And seventy-three. Eight hundred and seventy-three. That's just hot s***. Eight hundred and seventy-three.
WILL: Counting today, sir, yes.
COLONEL: That's gotta be a record. What's the best way to go about disarming one of these things?
WILL: The way you don't die, sir.
COLONEL: That's a good one. That's spoken like a wild man. That's good.
Reed's enthusiasm for the whole "wild man" thing definitely suggests he loves him some bad boys and really admires people who pursue danger. So, Will is right up his alley, that's for sure.