Generation Kill (Paperback)

The writer was a US journalist on assigment from the unlikely source of Rolling Stone magazine sent to the Gulf before the most recent Conflict occurred. He was allowed to be a full team member of a platoon of the elite US Marine Reconnaissance Group from the beginning to the end of the fighting (for reasons that are not fully explained given his non-combatant experience and the personal risks he would face). This unit was used by the US military command to operate as a mobile Humvee motorised group and continually probe forward of US lines to identify Iraqi military defences and engage them in firefights as the main US forces advanced to Baghdad. This in itself was a role reversal for an elite unit trained as the name implies to operate like the SAS and usually observe in secret enemy positions and only engage in fighting when deemed necessary (which had been their immediately preceding role in Afghanistan).

This book is outstanding for many reasons, including:

1. It is extremely well written by a correspondent who both observed and recorded the many different elements and forces at play, and is thus not just a record of what he saw. In so doing, he succeeds in conveying what it was like to be in the front line in this Conflict.

2. By being a constant passenger in the Platoon Leader's Humvee he saw how the fighting affected the team members plus can provide a unique insight of how command chains operate and decisions get made in the rapid unfolding of such mobile conflicts. Prime targets are the poor ground radio telecommunications systems (despite the hi-tech gloss given to the war in formal military briefings) and a number of more senior staff who for obvious reasons to any reader are referred to by nickname only!

3. He objectively covers the endless military errors and mistakes from chickens imported to detect chemical attacks but who all die in the first sand storms before the fighting started to poor equipment supplies (lubricant for the Humvees main guns given the constant sandstorms faced making them inoperable at several critical times and batteries for the body heat scanning detectors, which all upped the risks for the platoon in fighting) plus the experience of "friendly fire" (both US airforce and artillery) and the CIA's botched effort at using a sponsored Iraqi emigre army sadly reminiscent of the Bay of Pigs.

4. Given how events have unfolded in Iraq (and elsewhere) since this conflict ended, the book shows a number of warning signs that were ignored from the start of the war - the continual disappearing of the Iraqi army into civilians dress whenever they are attacked, with little attempt made to capture them; the main fighting being with foreign Jihad volunteers as a result (with little attempt from the start to try and identify and isolate them as they moved freely around the country) and the immediate collapse of order and ensuing anarchy and domestic violence as the Saddam regime infrastructure was removed at each town and village level.

While not an enjoyable or pleasant story, I have not read such an outstanding example of front line war reportage since Michael Herr's "Despatches" on Vietnam - I hope the book enjoys great success and recognition for its achievements as a result.

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