Baghdad at Sunrise
By Serena Tarling
Published: December 6 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 6 2008 02:00
Baghdad at Sunrise:
A Brigade Commander's
War in Iraq
by Peter R Mansoor
Yale £16.99, 416 pages
FT Bookshop price:
£13.59
This is one of the first accounts of the counter-insurgency in the first year of the Iraqi invasion told from the perspective of Colonel Peter Mansoor, a US commander of Palestinian descent who arrived with 3,500 soldiers in July 2003, after Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown.
It is an honest record which acknowledges how poorly prepared the allied forces were for the Iraqi insurgency. Mansoor writes well about the challenge of constantly having to adapt military tactics and weaponry and underlines the importance of human intelligence and the need to build a better understanding of the Iraqi culture. He defines counter-insurgency, in this respect, as the "thinking soldier's war".
This is an engaging and powerful account of war in the 21st century which isn't shy to suggest what should have been done.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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