This is not political, so don’t expect spin or slant. The politics stops on page one. That in itself is refreshing. Rarely is there any discussion of Iraq without politics quickly becoming involved and, frankly, I’ve had enough of it. This is different. This is the war from the soldier’s point of view. In short, this is Iraq as it really happened.

We see it every time some bonehead reporter sticks a microphone in the dirty, grease-ridden face of a soldier in Iraq and asks that soldier if he thinks the war is right. For a brief second, the soldier has a certain look on his face. It’s frustration. It’s pity. It’s "you-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about" all rolled into one. It’s the look of a soldier who knows his job, and does what’s asked of him. The "right" and "wrong" can be left up to the politicians. The soldiers don’t discuss that until the job is done. Many of those soldiers do just that in this book. And like Wood says, America has an obligation to hear what they’ve had to say. Until now, we’ve only heard from the politicians, and it’s evident to me that they have no clue what’s going on over there. So it’s about time we hear from those who do know, and this book fits that mold perfectly.

In this book, you’ll get first hand descriptions of the war. You’ll hear about the first days of the invasion and the first major battle within the city of Nazariya. You’ll hear about the first car bomb attack and the fall of Baghdad. You’ll hear about the assault on Fallujah and Najaf, and the heavy resistance our troops met in those cities. You’ll hear how the attitudes of the Iraqis changed over time, from one of greeting us jubilantly to despising us for intruding. All of these are truly amazing descriptions that will stir emotion in every reader.

As for the politics, if you want to know what went wrong, and what happened to change the course of the war against us, you’ll know by page sixty. In a word, it made me nauseated. Without giving away too much, I’ll say that few battles are won by Generals, but they can easily be lost by them. It seems the upper military and Pentagon leadership disappointed our troops in a tremendous way. If nothing else, I’m thankful that this book helped me realize that.

And what about the "anti-war" crowd? How do they affect the troops? Well, it seems the effect is profound. As one soldier says, "people are supportive of the troops as long as it doesn't take any sacrifice from them." How true. It seems that, once again, this nation has forgotten what it means to truly support their soldiers and, once again, we’ve betrayed them Vietnam-like in so many ways -top to bottom.

My only criticism comes from what seems to be a repeat theme among the soldiers. It appears that many of them disagree with the war and see it as a lost cause. I don’t have a problem with that because, again, they’re the ones who experienced it. But is that the consensus among the troops? If not, then where is the other side? This could open the book to harsh criticism from supporters of the Iraq War who would call the book political propaganda, and it could potentially threaten the message found within. That would be a shame, because the book is great and highly recommended by this reader. At last, the troops have been given their chance to speak, and we all owe it to them to hear what they have to say whether or not we agree with it. My advice is to put politics aside for a moment and listen to their words.