What happens when you send a journalist with an agenda to embed with a combat unit? What happens if she's a veteran working for the Army Times, i.e. Gannet Corporation? She finds her story and her agenda, but also finds great men doing a difficult job in what was then the most dangerous place on earth.
Though she downplays the positive effects of Charlie Company on the streets of Adhamiya, Greater Baghdad, Iraq, she does note that during their daily battles, they reduced the number of unarmed civilians murdered on their streets.
2006-2007 was a tough time for Troops. The political strife about the Iraq War stirred angry feelings and caused Our Troops to question if their risks were worth it. A seemingly ungrateful citizenry was willfully ignorant of the groundtruth, led astray by partisan slogans and enemy propaganda printed in Our Own newspapers. The top General would be slandered by partisan politicians and their attack dogs. And everyone with a camera and notepad wanted to get to the protection of Charlie Company to report their anguish, as noted by Ms. Kennedy herself.
She found Troops willing to question "The Surge." She finds PTSD behind every story. And when an upstanding NCO commits suicide, it was "Iraq that killed him."
But she also does a service to Our Troops, telling the stories of how Our Fallen Brothers lived. Inadvertently, she tells the story of how One Battalion, One Company, and One Platoon in particular defeated the enemy in their sector. She tells of the challenges of the Infantry Soldier fighting a war with a new strategy that his leaders did not quite understand completely. She tells of their innovation to new challenges.
She tells the story of Wounded Warriors who finds that the rear eschelons are not taking care of those that were takien out of the fight by wounds. She tells of an NCO that despite his own wounds takes care of his Brothers.
She applauds an NCO that reports a superior for war crimes, which is as it should be, and is.
She tells the story of a Commander's Wife, who helped the families of the unit hold it together, who because of her own experiences knew what could and could not be done and said to help her own husband as well as the wives and children of his Soldiers. She tells of the First Sergeant and his committment and struggles for his men.
This book is written for non-Veterans about a combat zone they don't understand and some of the terms left me scratching my head but the facts reported appear to be truthful, even if I find some of the analysis, tainted by the author's politics.
The men were pushed to their limits and just as they reached it, their leadership was changed. The leadership that built a great unit was replaced by those that did not understand the sacrifices already made. And that is when the NCO's stepped up and said: No More.
Ahdimaya is now a fairly peaceful part of Baghdad, while Iraq continues to search for peace, torn between Iranian backed Hezbollah and Syrian supported Al-Qaeda while al-Sadr's slums lie only miles away and he sits in Iran.
Stumble It!
