J. Kael Weston

I was anxious to write a review on this while it was still fresh. This is a raw, emotive and angry book. There is no doubt where the author stands on a few issues. He repeats them almost ad nauseum: Iraq was the 'wrong' war, Afghanistan the 'right' war and U.S. Marines are about the only guys who fought in either one or are worthy of much praise. American political leaders are excoriated throughout and probably rightfully so with very few exceptions; Senator John Warner of VA is one of the few who is not reduced to ashes in his telling and Richard Holbrooke is singled out for adulation repeatedly. Nor does he particularly exclude himself from the list of people who made extraordinarily bad decisions. In his case he was responsible for sending out a helo that crashed and suffers from the guilt of that decision. His anger at everything and everyone associated with actually both ventures is palpable and heartfelt. With one massive exception: his total lack of anger at the guys who caused both wars. Radical Islamists. They are mentioned in passing at times without the much rancor and certainly no condemnation. You might think they are 'bad guys' but mostly come off as victims of U.S. aggression. True, as he states repeatedly, Saddam did not plan 9/11 or hide a lot of active WMD (although certainly not 'none'; see 'Operation Avarice' for details). But Islamists attacked NY on 9/11 (and in 1993!) and could as easily have killed 30,000 as 3,000 and certainly wished for far more. Islamists are not confined to a few hundred radicals but represent a large swaths of the Muslim world (see recent histories of Pakistan, Iran and Libya to name a few) if you have any doubts about how widespread their support is. They have been funded in the billions by Wahabists in Saudi Arabia (our Ally?!) for decades. Despite the insane decision to pick on Saddam; no 9/11, no Iraq War. I challenge Weston to dispute that. Where is his rage at them and the ideology which fuels it all? Even if for just one page or even a paragraph? The thousands of Jihadist suicide attacks with zero regard for 'civilians' are barely mentioned except to describe horrific attacks on U.S. servicemen. Nothing about an ideology that praises the use of suicide bombers and any other means to kill or maim any 'infidel' (non-Muslim) or apostate (the Muslims they don't agree with). No, all the condemnation is reserved for America, GWB, and the usual suspects. And I do not exculpate them, they deserve it for the stupid Iraq invasion and the shameful ignoring of both wars after they began (in the 2012 election both candidates would not even mention the wars!). Still the book is a powerful testimony FOR America's fighting men and women (especially the Marines) and his respect for them is genuine. The lists of names of KIA make sad and powerful reading and I commend him for listing so many names. Yet if you read this book you might think the Marines did nearly ALL the fighting and dying. I hate reducing such suffering to statistics, but data shows 70 percent of U.S. KIA were Army (vs 49 percent of the force), versus 23 percent Marine (vs 10 percent of the force). So yes, a higher ratio for Marines but hardly overwhelming and utterly out of proportion to the attention given them in this book. And I am not in any way trying to diminish the Marines but to give some due to the U.S. Army as well.… (mere)