Author : Aaron Michael Grant
Publisher : Koehler Books
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 15,14 MB
Release : 2019-03-20
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781633937932
TAKING BAGHDAD is one of the few histories of Operation Iraqi Freedom written by a Marine who actually served in the war. It covers the twenty-two-day push to Baghdad in 2003, which was was one of the most efficient conflicts in the annals of warfare.
Author : Rod Andrew (Jr.)
Publisher : Government Printing Office
Page : 54 pages
File Size : 27,33 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Government publications
ISBN :
Author : Robert Shultz
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 20,42 MB
Release : 2013-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1612511414
The U.S. Marine Corps’ four-year campaign against al Qaeda in Anbar is a fight certain to take its place next to such legendary clashes as Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Chosin, and Khe Sanh. Its success, the author contends, constituted a major turning point in the Iraq War and helped alter the course of events and set the stage for the Surge in Baghdad a year later. This book brings to light all the decisive details of how the Marines, between 2004 and 2008, adapted and improvised as they applied the hard lessons of past mistakes. In March 2004, when part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) was deployed to Anbar Province in the heart of the Sunni triangle, the Marines quickly found themselves locked in a bloody test of wills with al Qaeda, and a burgeoning violent insurgency. By the spring of 2006, according to all accounts, enemy violence was skyrocketing, while predictions for any U.S. success were plummeting. But at that same time new counterinsurgency initiatives were put in place when I MEF returned for its second tour in Anbar, and the Marines began to gain control. By September 2008 the fight was over. Richard Shultz, a well-known author and international security studies expert, has thoroughly researched this subject. His book effectively argues the case for the Marines changing the course of the war at Anbar, which is contrary to the conventional wisdom that the Surge was the turning point."
Author : Daniel P. Bolger
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 565 pages
File Size : 37,41 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0544370481
A high-ranking general's gripping insider account of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how it all went wrong. Over a thirty-five-year career, Daniel Bolger rose through the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both theaters of the U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He participated in meetings with top-level military and civilian players, where strategy was made and managed. At the same time, he regularly carried a rifle alongside rank-and-file soldiers in combat actions, unusual for a general. Now, as a witness to all levels of military command, Bolger offers a unique assessment of these wars, from 9/11 to the final withdrawal from the region. Writing with hard-won experience and unflinching honesty, Bolger makes the firm case that in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we lost -- but we didn't have to. Intelligence was garbled. Key decision makers were blinded by spreadsheets or theories. And, at the root of our failure, we never really understood our enemy. Why We Lost is a timely, forceful, and compulsively readable account of these wars from a fresh and authoritative perspective.
Author : Timothy S. McWilliams
Publisher :
Page : 84 pages
File Size : 48,44 MB
Release : 2014-07-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9781782667018
This is a study of the Second Battle of Fallujah, also known as Operation Al-Fajr and Operation Phantom Fury. Over the course of November and December 2004, the I Marine Expeditionary Force conducted a grueling campaign to clear the city of Fallujah of insurgents and end its use as a base for the anticoalition insurgency in western Iraq. The battle involved units from the Marine Corps, Army, and Iraqi military and constituted one of the largest engagements of the Iraq War. The study is based on interviews conducted by Marine Corps History Division field historians of battle participants and archival material. The book will be of primary interest to Marines, other service members, policy makers, and the faculty and students at the service schools and academies. Historians, veterans, high school through univeristy history departments and students as well as libraries may be interested in this book as well. With full color maps and photographs.
Author : Groen Michael S.
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 438 pages
File Size : 26,3 MB
Release : 2018-11
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 035919768X
With the 1st Marine Division in Iraq, 2003: No Greater Friend, No Worse Enemy"The events chronicled here capture the story of the Marines of the "Blue Diamond" as they prepared for war, conquered and army, and liberated a nation. From across America and beyond, they chose the demanding path, to become Marines. These Marines marched in the ranks of this national treasure that we call the 1st Marine Division. And, at a time when timid souls or cynical pundits grew loudest, these men shouldered their weapons and moved without hesitation against the enemy. Our victory was not inevitable. It was the courage, unselfishness, and skill of the young men of Blue Diamond to whom we owe our victory."
Author : Carter Malkasian
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 48,90 MB
Release : 2017-07-19
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0190659440
In the immediate aftermath of the 2007 "Surge" of American troops in Iraq, the defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in Anbar Province was widely hailed as one of America's signature victories. US Marines and soldiers fought for years there, in grinding battles such as Fallujah and Ramadi that define the experience of Iraq. Eventually, the fractious tribal sheiks in that province, with the help of American troops, united in an "Awakening" that dealt AQI a stunning defeat. The Awakening's success argued that the United States could intervene in a war-torn country and, with the right strategy, bring stability and peace. It seemed to exemplify snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. A decade later, the situation in Anbar Province is dramatically different. In 2014, much of Anbar fell to the AQI's successor organization, the Islamic State, which swept through the region with shocking ease. In Illusions of Victory, Carter Malkasian looks at the wreckage to explain why the Awakening's initial promise proved misleading and why victory was unsustainable. Malkasian begins by tracing the origins of the Awakening, then turns his attention to what happened in its wake. After the United States left, Iraq's Shi'a government sidelined Sunni leaders throughout the country. AQI, brought back to life as the Islamic State, expanded in northern and western Iraq and quickly found a receptive audience among marginalized Sunnis. In short order, the progress that had resulted from the Awakening fell apart. Malkasian draws many lessons from Anbar. Chief among them, the most stunning of victories may not last. The fact that the leading model of success fell apart severely damages the idea that the United States can send the military to a country for a few years and create lasting peace. Even the most successful example was bound to deeper social, sectarian, and religious forces insensitive to temporary boots on the ground. From today's perspective, rather than decisive success, Anbar exemplifies how intervention itself is a costly, long-term project. The most brilliant victory could not escape this wisdom.
Author : Eliot Weinberger
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 58 pages
File Size : 12,95 MB
Release : 2020-05-05
Category : History
ISBN : 178960995X
The Iraq War has unleashed such a torrent of opinion - impassioned polemic, neo-con apologia, world-weary cynicism - that it feels like the important truths are being lost in a media feeding-frenzy. Eliot Weinberger eschews the rehtoric of the soapbox in an extraordinary montage of facts, sound bites and testimonies. He assembles an uncompromising and blackly comic narrative, which permits the voices of the war to speak for themselves, and allows the protagonists to damn themselves in their own words. This pocket-sized volume is vast in scope, a work unlike any other you have read on Iraq, which finds an unexpected eloquence in its refusal to join in the facile grand-standing and selective amnesia of so much contemporary commentary.
Author : Bing West
Publisher : Random House
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 40,98 MB
Release : 2010-06-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1407092855
Taking us straight to the front lines, The March Up follows the famed 1st Marine Division on their decisive 1,184 kilometre trek to Baghdad, from first assault to the taking of the city. The 1st Marine Division, which had fought in Guadalcanal, Khe San, and Kuwait City, provided the critical force in Operation Iraqi Freedom. With unprecedented access to everyone from three-star generals to privates, authors West and Smith, men with 60 years of military and combat experience between them, trace the strategic war plans as they unfolded in battle, providing unflinching portrayals of what went well and what went poorly, and detailing power struggles and failures which have never before been reported. No other journalist had the mobility, battlefield knowledge or personal contacts as West or Smith. They were able to observe eighteen separate combat units in the division. What emerges is a dramatic, personal and human account of how the corporals fought and the generals plotted, revealing the men behind the guns and the brave and sometimes unorthodox actions that resulted in astonishing triumphs. Complete with a 16- page, four-colour photo insert and endpaper maps, The March Up is the behind-the-scenes story of how the men on the frontlines and the strategists in the backroom turned the march to Baghdad into a road to victory.
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 22,42 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Anbār (Iraq : Province)
ISBN :
