SWJ Book Review by Terry Daly
Bing West's superb book on the loss and retaking of Fallujah in al-Anbar Province, western Iraq, in 2004 excels on several levels. For the general reader it tells a heroic story in the tradition of American combat writing of Richard Tregaskis on Guadalcanal, Robert Sherrod on Tarawa, and Samuel Lyman Atwood ("SLAM") Marshal on World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Second, its dependence on first hand knowledge from participants at every level among U.S. military and civilian participants, while the action was taking place, guarantees it will be one of the basic historical reference works for future writers on the Iraq war.
For the specialist, though, its greatest value will be in its detailed description, perhaps unintentional, of how and why conventional military tactics concentrating on the enemy -- simply killing insurgents -- fail, even when those tactics are used skillfully and bravely by well trained, well led, elite forces. Time and again West describes Marine and Army units sweeping through areas, using the conventional firepower and maneuver at which they excel, only to have the insurgents move right back in behind them again to retain control of the population living in those areas.
People-centered classic counterinsurgency doctrine requires that military forces stay to protect the population until effective policing can defend the people from the insurgents; it is on another planet from the Marines and their commanders on the ground in al-Anbar, in the Green Zone in Baghdad, and in Washington. Rather than complementing the military efforts, economic development funds are treated as bribes for local sheiks whom, despite all evidence to the contrary, senior commanders persist in hoping might spare the US military the job of cleaning out the insurgents. The Marine generals treat governance of Fallujah as an afterthought, to be left to whatever Iraqis show up rather than part of a structured plan with US staff, money and a charter to monitor and guide its development.
The only Americans who come out well in NO TRUE GLORY are the Marines and soldiers who do the sweating and the dying, and their immediate tactical commanders; despite West's attempt to show they are acting for intelligently and good reasons, no one who wore stars or suits will be comfortable reading the description of his efforts. French counterinsurgency expert David Galula's stricture against negotiating with insurgents is proven again here -- not for the reason that Galula intended, that it gives encouragement, hope and relief to the insurgents, but rather because the incompetence of EVERYONE involved on the American side is beyond belief. The Marx Brothers on a bad day couldn't emulate the vacillation, chaos and confusion caused by the disconnection from reality, and lack of skill, purpose and communication among US senior Marine and Army generals, civilian officials and policy makers.
Finally, for students of national security West's book provides inescapable evidence that our system for command in wartime is broken. Communications flow in one direction -- downwards in the form of orders, directives, regulations, etc. Information never goes upward or laterally in a way that causes or even influences review and rethinking of a course of action to be taken. By the first battle of Fallujah it was obvious to the fighters on the ground and their tactical commanders up to the regimental and brigade level that the strategy of the "light footprint" handed down from CENTCOM, by which contact with the Iraqis by US military forces was to be minimized, was not working. Yet it was as if there was some impenetrable membrane sealing the generals and their staffs from the fighters at regiment or brigade and their staffs and below. The horse Light Footprint was dead but the generals kept demanding, ordering, cajoling and pleading to make Light Footprint horse run. But Light Footprint was lying dead out there on the track in front of the world and the only people who didn't realize it were the four-stars, getting their reality from classified daily Power Point briefings.
So once again, as it usually does, in Fallujah it came down to the Lance Corporals, Sergeants, and Company and Field Grade officers to compensate with their skill, courage and blood for the failures of the Generals, Ambassadors and policy makers. Here West is outstanding in letting them tell their own stories. At least here someone got something right.
Lieutenant Colonel Terry Daly is a retired U.S. government national security and foreign policy official. After training in counterinsurgency he served in Vietnam as a civilian advisor.