Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding Book!
Review: I was anxiously awaiting a good book that detailed our latest war in Iraq and I was not disappointed. This book is OUTSTANDING! West and Smith managed to write a book that not only shows you the big picture, but all the little smaller pictures too. They don't overload you with names and their description of the fighting makes you feel as if you are there. The most impressive thing about this book is they don't try to paint a "US Military is always right" picture in this book. They write openly about what some might consider murder of innocent civilians by Marines yet they balance it with the compassion Marines showed to innocent Iraqis caught in the cross fire. Overall this book is well worth every penny and I a glad I purchased it.
Rating: 
Summary: One-of-a-kind reporting, mediocre read.
Review: I'm not a military man myself (although members of my family are), but nevertheless an avid reader of everything military. I was quite excited about this book; actually excited enough to go out to the bookstore to buy it, instead of waiting for a couple of days to get one from amazon.com for half the price. Unfortunately, I have to say that I am more than a bit disappointed.There is no doubt in my mind that this book is an excellent reporting piece. Bing West and Gen. "E-Tool" Smith get incredibly close to the action (hotshots... ;), record jaw-dropping number of details about the campaign, display excellent no-nonsense veteran understanding of what is going on, and faithfully describe the bravery and professionalism of the United States Marines, being frank even when it comes to talking about the gory details. Yet, to my sadness, the whole book reads more like a 300-page cnn.com news brief, and not like a book about fighting men and women, human beings like you and me. When I think about it, the book does not even read like a times.com feature. It is quite dry, matter-of-fact, and nondescriptive. I did not, of course, expect the authors to carry on the media frenzy about interrogating everyone around them about how they FELT about things, but they were somewhat overly tight-lipped throughout the book. RCT-5 turned west here, battalion 1/4 attacked east there. To clarify, on route 7. Three enemy 122mm rockets hit here, lobbed RPGs hit there, the Marines answered with 7,776 bomblets. One wonders: what was the rationale behind RCT-5's move? Was the move correct, in retrospect? Why did battalion 1/4 attack that part of town, and not the other? Was it a textbook case of some infantry support tactic? What does that particular tactic achieve? Do the units have nicknames or specialties? Why did those tanks sit there, anyway? Do 122mm rockets sound differently than RPG projectiles? What kind of damage does each one do? Bomblets? What are bomblets? Unless you have infantry experience, you rarely get the picture of what was going on. Drop the book off for a couple of days, and you will have a hard time figuring out what the situation was when you did. I read quite a lot about military equipment and tactics, and still had no idea most of the time (but there is always a possibility that I'm just dumb). Yet, at times, one gets the feeling that the authors keep the narrative to the bare minimum ON PURPOSE. When they "let it go" a little tiny bit, the good stuff immediately shows up, and you can be with real, live soldiers for a while and turn pages fast. That's the story. Too bad, maybe they should have taken the Mark Bowden guy along for the ride. I find myself hoping that the authors will take their time and come up with "The March Up, Redux".
Rating:
Summary: Award Winner
Review: It is easy to understand why this book has won so many awards, including the Colby Military Writers Prize. The authors are combat veterans who saw action in battles in prior wars. General Smith was one of the most decorated Marines since World War II, and Bing West wrote The Village, a book about his experience in a combined action platoon in Vietnam. They bring you inside the action as they travel with the leading units in an unarmored civilian SUV. They are not afraid to be honest about what they saw. Marines voted this book the Marine Corps Heritage Award for the best Marine nonfiction in 2004. This book explains to you the complexity of the march to Baghdad. I finished it with a tremendous admiration for the soldiers on the front lines. This book deserves all the awards it has been given and will receive in the future. Please read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not accurate.
Review: Like the reviewer who was there in Nasariya, I passed through there while heading to a place called Al Garafe. My platoon crossed open ground into a compound which the authors of this book said was not contested by the enemy. My entire company was engaged. We were under heavy fire and I saw the enemy shooting at us. We went through a basic load of ammunition there. The author could not have been there because he said we had tanks and armoured carriers, when all we had were trucks, at least until relief arrived later.The Recon unit which arrived ,after 20 or so minutes shot at another cmpany in my battalion. The recon units fire, where I was, was stopped by SSgt Cawley who would later die in Al Fajir on the 29th of March. The story about the foreign officer attached to a Marine LAV unit who committed war crimes may be sensationalized. An enquiry was held and no charges were pursued. The authors had put Marines lives in danger by taking a swim in a river during war time conditions, then complained when Marines attempted to protect them from enemy action. I was not there during this incident, but I do know the officer involved. The book was informative regarding what was going on during the campaign, but the book has many factual errors.I question its' veracity, at least with the incident I was involved with. Like the previous reviewer who was there, it is my belief that this book was churned out to make a quick buck at the expence accuracy.The greatest casualty of this book may be the truth. Wait for a better book that is accurate.
Rating:
Summary: "Instant History" in the Worst Sense of the Word
Review: Numerous Marines described in The March Up have complained of gross errors in this book. I'm a former Marine and while I think this book has some value, it should NOT be confused with an actual work of history. The March Up is a tour de force of smug self-congratulation, jingoism and gross factual errata. This book is a real shame because it was clearly written to make a quick buck off of the war, rather than objectively record events through extensive interviewing and research. There are so many things wrong in this book I don't know where to begin (the Nasiriyah battle passages are particularly distorted). I stopped counting how many active-duty Marines have openly mocked this book in my presence. It's really become a joke in the barracks at Camp Pendleton from what I understand.
When I learned that Harrison Ford is supposed to star in an adaptation of West's forthcoming book about Fallujah, I literally thought I was going to vomit. This book and West's Fallujah reportage are examples of crass opportunism and war profiteering and are the worst kind of journalism. Troops often complain that the real experience of war never gets in the history books. With people like Bing West doing the writing, it's no wonder. West should be condemned for trying to pass off his shameful hackery as either history or journalism. It's neither.
Try THUNDER RUN or STORM ON THE HORIZON instead.
Rating:
Summary: The Author's Website
Review: Please visit www.westwrite.com for more information
about the author and his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Impeccable credentials, exellent access, mediocre writing
Review: Smith and West are two US Marine veterans with impeccable credentials for knowledge of war. There access was excellent, probably better than a number of the embedded reporters in Iraq. The writing in the book however, has something to be desired. The book is written like a "What I Did on My Vacation in Iraq." There is little analysis of the situations and the authors don't make the story interesting in any way. I actually had trouble forcing my way through some of the battle descriptions, because they are boring!! The authors provide a number of useless details, but don't provide any of the tension of the battles. In addition most of the men they talk to we get to know in only a superficial sense, which gets even more superficial as the book goes on until the individual Marines are reduced to only last names. I think if they would have spent more time researching and writing this book, they could have come up with something really special, but this isn't it. If you want a book about the war that is interesting try Rick Atkinson's "In the Company of Soldiers."
Rating:
Summary: The Marines Didn't Take Baghdad
Review: The 3rd Infantry Division did. The Marines couldn't find a bridge and the 3rd ID had already broken the back of the resistance with the "thunder runs". Just because the Marines toppled the statue, doesn't mean they should get the credit. Truman was right when he said the Marines have a better propoganda wing than Stalin. Other than that, I haven't read the book, but the title pisses me off. Rakkasan!
Rating:
Summary: The Marines Didn't Take Baghdad
Review: The 3rd Infantry Division did. The Marines couldn't find a bridge and the 3rd ID had already broken the back of the resistance with the "thunder runs". Just because the Marines toppled the statue, doesn't mean they should get the credit. Truman was right when he said the Marines have a better propoganda wing than Stalin. Other than that, I haven't read the book, but the title pisses me off. Rakkasan!
Rating: 
Summary: Semper Fi
Review: The authors write from the perspective of two former Marines. They are able to get us inside the heads of the marines involved in the conflict and help us to see how the battles unfold. The focus is tight. There is very little political analysis on the Iraq War just stories of Marines engaging in combat and related struggles. The authors demonstrate a good understanding of what they observe and communicate that understanding to the reader. Some books on the war mythologize those involved but this one shows the heroes with warts and all. As a result, this is the best book on the Iraq War that I've read and I highly recommend it.
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