Harold Coyle was a military officer and thus knows how to protray military action and the reactions of the men and women caught up in the organized chaos that is war. He also shows how in a peacetime military a talented rank climber with decent admin skills and good performance in war games can get command of a frontline divivsion. No imcompetance here folks, just the Peter-principal in action. Cpt. Kozack's actions are not unusual givin the circumstances nor would be Gen. Lane's but to be fair to the Dog-faces (I'm a Jarhead) I believe that once Lane's incompetance was shown, the good captain would get off easily. Sure, she wouldn't get a medal but her career would survive and Lane would become a glorified gofer in the puzzle palace. The interplay between a hero-general, his protage, and a well connented politician in uniform is very well played out if ending in a bit of a anti-climax. But it must be said that these things often end this way.
Were Coyle again goes wrong in on his political background (he did the same in TEN THOUSAND: seven barely adequately trained divisions vs. even one crack US division and the USN, USMC and ASAF air wings (who would have been brought in)? Come on!). First of all FARC (as pretty much everyone, even THEM, admits) is the worlds largest single suppliers of cocaine in the world (70%). They also engage routinely in massacres, kidnapping, and extortion. Sure the right-wing paramilitaries also do these three things, but even Amnesty International admits that FARC has them beat. Thus to my mind making FARC so bloody pure is a stretch to astound Mr. Fantastic and bit insulting really, not to mention odd for such a Army veteran. I chalk it up to literary stretching for sake of story (as I did for the TEN THOUSAND) but I hope that in the future that Major Coyle will change the names of his background organizations enabling readers to suspend belief easier.