I just finished The March Up by Bing West (with Major Gen Ray Smith). West gives a great overview of the USMC's role in the invasion of Iraq. He was there as an advisor/observer, kind of like the embedded reporters, but different. Unlike other books I've read by embeds, who were often limited to one small unit's activities and an incomplete understanding of the military, West had access to the top commanders in the field and a comprehensive understanding of the Corps from his own experience. These assets result in a book with the best balance of gritty detail vs. big picture that I've read in a non-fiction work.
It makes me look forward to West's next work, No True Glory, about Fallujah, which is due out in May and is already being made into a movie, starring Harrison Ford as Major General James Mattis.
Reading The March Up paints a different picture of General Mattis than what you may have seen recently in the news. That many know him now more for his "killing is fun" comments than for his bravery and genius is disturbing. Ideally, Mattis' accomplishments and writings would have been well known, showing him to be an educated, rational, and reasonable professional. Instead everyone sees an anonymous old military-type and they dismiss him as insensitive and politically incorrect.
Too bad. Maybe that will change after the movie.
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