In The Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat in Iraq

Rating:
Summary: twenty-one gun salute to the 101st Airborne
Review: As an embedded journalist with the 101st Airborne ("Band of Brothers" fame), Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent and military historian Richard Atkinson provides a deep look at the Iraq War from the perspective of the American troops. Though the concentration is more on the field grade officers, no one seems to have been left out of this effort. Readers learn how the soldier sees things whether it is equipment and supply shortages or overages (sounds contradictory, but is a big concern) or the individual and group safety in a hostile environs. Mr. Atkinson furbishes insight from the moment the division is called up to leave Fort Campbell to deploy to the desert until the capture of Baghdad when the author returns to the states.

Military history buffs will realize that the author salutes the army for their superb efforts to win a war while fighting nature and preventing civilian casualties though not all went well. IN THE COMPANY OF SOLDIERS: A CHRONICLE OF COMBAT is clearly anti this war yet fully supportive of the soldiers that the books raves about as courageous, sincere, and capable. Mr. Atkinson condemns the administration for lack of logistical planning and for its rationale for armed combat (being revised by the winners to we did right removing an abusive dictator; if that was the cause then the administration should have taken that thesis to the American people). Rumsfeld bashing aside, Mr. Atkinson clearly congratulates the deserving 101st with a twenty-one gun salute.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Pedestrian, limited in its view and a bit biased
Review: Atkinson was a stafsf writer and senior editor at The Washington Post for 20 years. He has written several other books. This one recounts his experience as an embedded journalist with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.

In particular, Atkinson follows Major General David Petraeus, commanding general of the 101st. His subject is perhaps his misfortune. Atkinson's view is both from the top down and the peripherary, since the 101st was employed primarily in a supporting role.

The overall result is a portrait of a commanding general with a broader overview of the entire Iraq campaign grafted to it. The book is well-written, interesting but ultimately unsatisfying in some ways. There is little feeling of the struggle inherent to any military campaign and essentially no connection with the individual soldiers fighting the war. This definitely is not Ernie Pyle.

Atkinson, unfortunately, mars this pedestrian account with the seemingly mandatory "told you so" about the aftermath of the campaign. His critique seems a bit strained and out of place in a book that is ostensibly about the campaign itself.

That said, reading "In The Company Of Soldiers" left me eager to read "An Army At Dawn," Atkinson's history of the campaign in North Africa. I think, frankly, that may be a better canvas for his skills.

Jerry

Rating:
Summary: In the company of politics
Review: I purchased this book because I cajoled a young man into the Army prior to 9/11. He ended up in the 101st Airborne, the famous Screaming Eagles, who are the subject of this book. Instead of a chronicle of the heroics of this Division in Iraq (after their service in Afghanistan), this author confirms the liberal leanings of the media. The author cannot help himself, criticizing the Bush admininstration throughout the book, instead of building on the accomplishments of the officers and soldiers of the 101st and the US Army in their victory in Iraq.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to Rick Atkinson's excellent standard
Review: Rick Atkinson (Pulitzer prize winner for Army at Dawn) was an embedded reporter in the 101 airborne during our most recent Iraqi war. He spends his time with General Petraeus and the story is from the perspective of someone following around the general. The result of this is a very readable account of this general's personality, command issues and combat encounters at the general's level. What is missing is a more complete view and account of this division's war experience. I found myself looking for a clearer overall picture and a better idea of the unit tactics.
While I am a fan of Rick Atkinson's books, this point of view account of the war left a bad taste for reading any others. I don't care to piece together a conflict by reading a dozen point of view books from various embedded reporters.

Rating:
Summary: Lightweight and Biased, but Readable
Review: Rick Atkinson invites you to ride along as he gets to know the top brass of the 101st Airborne and watches them call the shots in Iraq. The result is a disappointment but not a total loss.

Readers of his previous work will be shocked at the utter lack of depth here. Discussions of tactics and strategy are strictly superficial, and the enlisted soldiers doing the actual shooting are ignored completely. He describes listening to radio communications while companies of men manoeuver under fire , but somehow never finds the time to ask them about the experience.

Atkinson repeatedly allows his dislike of the Bush administration to get the best of him, which results in a few really awful cheap shots. At one point he flatly refers to Saddam's WMD as nonexistent. Not unproven, or as-yet undiscovered, or even doubtful, but nonexistent. If, as UN inspectors believe, Saddam did move chemical weapons to Syria before the war, Atkinson has seriously compromised his integrity here. He also recycles the false claim that Bush painted Iraq as "an imminent, existential danger...". Actually, the President urged action against Iraq BEFORE the threat became imminent. Where's a fact checker when you need one? Atkinson catalogues the losses suffered by American forces during the occupation of Iraq, carefully sending the message that these deaths constitute an indictment of Bush policy. He neglects to mention that many of the terrorists are non-Iraqis fighting to prevent Iraq from becoming a successful democracy. Mr. Atkinson evidently prefers to leave the reader with the impression that the general population of Iraq has rejected the American presence there. This is in keeping with the view of many in the media, but is sharply at odds with the firsthand reports of many American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Atkinson's writing skills are quite good, and he paints an interesting portrait of the talented, driven Major General David Petraeus. There is also a fairly good "you are there" quality as he describes his own experiences and reactions.

Don't pay full price for this book. If you can borrow one or find a cheap used copy it's a decent light read. Just hold your nose when he goes into BBC mode.

Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING!!!!
Review: This book is an outstanding read and worth every penny. Mr. Atkinson writes in detail about the deployment and combat the 101st Airborne Division was involved in during Operation Iraqi Freedom. A majority of the book is focused on the commanding general and his staff, but the author does write about those at the lower levels of command and the problems they faced. His writing is very detailed and makes the reader feel as if he is actually getting pounded with sand during shamals or seeing comrades die during combat. The writing draws you in and keeps you there. Mr. Atkinson is brutally honest in showing how politician's views and soldier's views of how the war should have been waged are vastly different. Mr. Atkinson is not complimentary toward Bush and Rumsfeld. He writes about their trying to go to war "on a shoestring" and how they got upset when the V Corps commander stated his opinion of how the war was going. Recent events in Iraq has proven once again that politicians who weasled their way out of serving their country do not have a clue what it takes to wage and win a war.