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1st Brigade, 1st Armored Div CO Peter R. Mansoor’s memoir of May’03 to July ‘04 raks up another rave review, this one at Small Wars Journal for its detail of the early phase of the war in one critical sector, lessons learned, advocacy of cultural change in the military and America at large, which always seems to have something more important to do. Reviews and some discussion follow:
Echoing concerns raised by Bing West in his highly regarded The Strongest Tribe, Mansoor worries about the relationship between the American people and its professional army. “American cannot long remain a superpower if we think that our wars can be fought solely by the small sliver of society that populates our professional military forces,” he observes.
NY Post’s Ralph Peters, decrying the flood of “don’t-blame-me” tomes, calls this one “extraordinarily valuable.”
Mansoor cracked the code early on: “long-range sensors and shooters can win a war, but they cannot create peace. For that goal, boots on the ground are required to provide security . . . and stabilize the land the way the Roman legions once did.”
“Baghdad at Sunrise” is a far better guide to counterinsurgency warfare than the official manual published by the Army and Marines. Mansoor was a voice of reason during the drafting of that manual, but political correctness won out. As a result, this book has more intellectual integrity and utility (here the enemy is killed; in the manual, he needs a hug).
Yet, whatever theoretical grasp he possessed, Mansoor had a flesh-and-blood brigade to lead and increasingly brutal enemies to fight: “A failure to adapt inevitably means defeat.” Mansoor’s reinforced 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division proved impressively agile in adapting to unanticipated threats - notably to the insurgents’ evolving weapon of choice, the roadside bomb. Mansoor’s soldiers became manhunters, cops, aid workers, engineers, aldermen, referees - and had to be ever alert to the imminent danger of no-holds-barred combat.
Regarding that social issue, Peters adds this detail:
The brigade’s year-plus of duty culminated in a shift from Baghdad to fight - with tanks blasting away - against Muqtada al Sadr’s militia in the battle of Najaf. The thanks of a grateful nation for all those soldiers did? Mansoor captures it with cold-blooded perfection: “Fifteen months after my return from Iraq, I was invited to a cocktail reception on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. After discovering that the son of the host and hostess was interested in military affairs, I suggested that, since the United States Military Academy was just upriver from New York City, perhaps he should consider applying for admission. The hostess blanched, put her arm around her son’s shoulders, and replied, ‘No, no, no! He has much more important things planned for his life.’ “
I should talk. When I was making my decisions, my more important things usually involved women, partying and low-paid scribbling jobs. Then again, we were not a nation at war, or at least, did not generally recognize ourselves to be at that time. My own son, raised in time of war, having seen his father go there, having met soldiers, including some severely combat-wounded, and working through a heavy reading list, is interested in a military career. He has some years ahead of him, and it is his choice whether and how he will do that. Free country. All I can do is tell him what I know about it, good, bad and ugly, and let him know that serving his country is always an honorable course.
That, and not any cynical military draft proposals of the sort anti-war factions have made, is how I think the civilian-military divide is bridged. It’s a culture war. Mansoor reportedly makes no recommendations. I’ve got one. I could point to all the books and articles at places like Small Wars Journal that demonstrate that military men are thinking men trying to do good in the worst of circumstances, facing up to the greatest challenge of our times. But those will only ever reach a small audience. How about Hollywood get off its trip-wire vet/war crimes kick and focus a little more on some of the accomplishments of the last seven years of hard-fought war?
War is hell, and war damages people and embitters them, it’s true. Reality is many-faceted. The latest effort, “Generation Kill,” was intensely focused on the potty-mouth part. Message: Marines are much-abused perverts led by incompetents. GK did include some useful examples of great and poor leadership in a unit that appeared to have some critical leadership challenges. GK could end up being the definitive story of the 2003 invasion, which is too bad, because it is mostly the definitive story of Cpl. Person and Capt. America. There are other stories. “Thunder Run” depicts a bold, highly successful gambit by the brigade, battalion and company I was attached to during the invasion. All the irony you want and even some alleged American war crimes, along with exemplary, innovative, decisive and often courageous leadership from the brigade commander on down to the platoon level. I know. I saw. From my vantage point in a vehicle full of fine young trash-talking GIs on the leading edge of one of several leading edges in that invasion.
“Baghdad at Sunrise” would appear to offer some possibilities. It’s a free-throw. You get to bash Bush and still show some the Americans heroically trying to do something good in the world. You want action? “Lone Survivor” is the gripping tale of a SEAL sniper mission gone badly wrong, heroism and a desperate fight to survive, with a remarkable story of an Afghan village’s choice to defy the Taliban. It is a Medal of Honor story. So is the story of Ross McGinnis, troubled kid who made good, and sacrificed himself to save his comrades. Slightly off topic, I wouldn’t mind seeing something about some Iraqis who made the same choice.
“Second Fallujah,” house-to-house action in a den of murderous insurgents. It’s war, it’s never pretty, leave your moralizing at home and just show it. Need a stirring epic? “Surge.” It’s the story of how psychologically and politically traumatized Iraqis came to recognize their own best interest lay outside tribal and sectarian bounds, and turned on the terrorists among them, while the United States, deep in an unpopular war and in danger of losing it politically, changed its tactics, all with dramatic effect. Doesn’t need to end with a victory parade. It would be better in fact if it ended with the bitter acknowledgement that this is just one phase in a battle that never ends. The battle Hollywood loves to fight. You know. Good vs. Evil.
That’s just one idea. Some serious re-thinking of priorities in American universities, starting with places like Harvard, could be encouraged through federal spending. No ROTC, no military desk at the job fair … no research $$$, no student loans. It’s an affirmative action thing. Maybe an organized effort by military alums of all universities, with the Ivy Leaguers leading the way, to demand respect for those following in their bootprints, and to call out well-intentioned administrators, professors and student groups bent on excising evil from their midst. Political and business leaders whose own formative experience includes military service could be part of gently helping to refine academia’s view.
The problem is that Hollywood, and large parts of American academia and society, haven’t been able to figure out what evil is, and since Sept. 12, 2001, have been nurturing the notion that it is us. That, and that which is difficult is a wrongheaded failure to be rectified only through retreat and abandonment. National self-criticism and self-examination is one thing. But it is beyond me how the level of national self-loathing and the refusal to defend one’s nation and the values it stands for in the world that we’ve seen in recent decades is in anyway defensible.
Topics: America, Iraq, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:15 am on Monday, September 29, 2008
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September 29th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Jules:
You may not have worn the uniform for service, but you went where the uniform went and did good service anyway. There’s zero shame in that.
As to current military culture, I would ask everyone to remember that every career officer and staff nco in our military has served every day of his military career with a media and ivory tower spawned society that has demonstrated an overwhelming willingness to take any miss step or the failure of a single soldier or small group as proof that the entire “military establishment” is either criminal or incompetent.
During the ’90s, there was also an unfortunately successful campaign waged by the civilian “leadership” to feminize the military and render it down from a fighting organization to a social welfare program.
Anyone in uniform in the staff nco and officer ranks knows full well that the US military will always be engaged in hostile actions from its own homefront. Surviving that requires a degree of defensiveness and over caution that can only play out to our enemy’s benefit.