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The Bitter Victory
- Abstract
It is difficult for a veteran of the Iraq War to read Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor’s new and meticulous one-volume history of that conflict. Other veterans are likely to do as I did and skip ahead to the section of the book that deals directly with his small portion of the fight—and read that section with a critical eye born of the most granular knowledge. Then, as he or she reads, the very accuracy of the account will bring to mind the immense pain and frustration of the war, where progress in one arena was followed by disaster in a second and abject confusion in a third; where battlefield courage was often trumped by PowerPoint foolishness; and where soldiers and politicians carried on parallel and often contradictory campaigns.
In short, Gordon and Trainor get the story just right.
About the Author
David French is a senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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