WAR
JOURNAL MY FIVE YEARS IN IRAQ By
Richard Engel
War Journal is a really important
book. Engel went to Iraq before the
beginning of the war and was present in Baghdad during the Shock and Awe
attack. As if that weren’t enough, as a correspondent
for NBC he had access to everyone. He
could talk to the Iraqi leadership and the American commanders. He was imbedded with the troops.
Most
importantly, he could operate without a translator and talked to the Iraq man
on the street. As an Arabic speaker, he
could understand what was happening around him in a way that other Americans
could not. He was like a fish in water.
The greatest strength
of this book is that Engel, because he understands Arab culture, explains
things like the political significance the judge who oversaw Saddam Hussein’s
execution and the meaning of the location of his hanging. These are subtleties beyond the purview of
most western journalists.
War Journal is essential reading for any
soldier and his or her family and friends.
Two other books that should be read along with War Journal are The Just War Myth: the moral illusions of war by Andrew Fiala and Western Expansionism
In the Persian Gulf by V. Mikhin. Fiala’s book is a handbook for how to think about the
tradeoffs associated with waging war. It
is a great book. Mikhin’s
book was published in 1988. Published by
an Indian publishing house, this is a view of the Persian Gulf conflict from a
third world perspective. Sadly, this
book shows that the military conflict to control Middle East oil is already
forty years old, if not four hundred.
Western governments come up with different excuses, spreading
civilization or Christianity, protecting routes to the colonies, defending the
state of Israel, or fighting the war on terror; but the policy is always the
same.