From Publishers Weekly
This very readable eyewitness history of the 1st Marine Division in the recent Iraq War was penned by two very qualified observers: both West and Smith served in Vietnam as Marines; Smith also served in Granada and Beruit, while West (The Village; The Pepperdogs) is a former Assistant Secretary of Defense. Unsurprisingly, their account of Marines advancing from Kuwait to Baghdad-and thereby ending up farther from the sea than any Marines in history-is far from anti-military. Perhaps more unexpectedly, though, they present their campaign history warts and all. The portrait of the division owes its breadth to interviews from several hundred sources, not all of whom survived. Two stand out: Shane Ferkovich, whose squad prevented sabotage of an oil-pumping station in the beginning of the march and helped take down Saddam's statue at the end; and General Mattis, the division commander and chief juggler of conflicting demands. An exceptional selection of photographs and better maps than most books to date on the war add to this account's appeal.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Although the political wisdom of the war to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein remains a subject for debate, the brilliance of the military campaign to topple him must be acknowledged. Smith is a veteran of conflicts in Vietnam, Lebanon, and Grenada. West, also a Vietnam veteran, was assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. They were embedded with the First Marine Division, which spearheaded the 1,184-kilometer march from Kuwait to Baghdad. This is a gritty, insider's account that reveals, often in dramatic fashion, the tensions, disputes, snafus, and successes that characterize a military campaign. As received on television news reports, high-tech warfare often seems sanitized, but West and Smith repeatedly remind us that war is still a horrid, nasty business that revolves around successful killing of enemy soldiers. Despite the rapid defeat and collapse of the regime, they credibly assert that rapid success was not inevitable; it was the product of numerous decisions, often taken at the tactical localized level, as well as healthy doses of good fortune. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
