The Good Soldiers

by David Finkel

This book is about the surge in Iraq from 2007-2008 and is an insider's look at the life and challenges faced by the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich. It looks at the personal experiences of the men on the ground, unbiased by political rhetoric.

Reading through the news, one can see soldier casualties as of perhaps one soldier KIA and may regard this as a low number. This book puts a face of that one soldier who died in the war is not just a statistic but a real person. It is someone's father, mother, brother, sister, best friend.

One of the most interesting part of this book is on a very disturbing video called Collateral Murder from Wikileaks. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the army was unethical and the soldiers were trigger-happy. After reading The Good Soldiers, I see another perspective. That the soldiers are so disillusioned by the war and are trying to help people and a certain section of these group of this people are trying to kill them for it. The soldiers themselves fear for their lives every single day, their nerves strained to such a degree that although they do not wish to kill anyone, the mentality is that of to pull the trigger before the trigger is pulled on you.

Last but also the most important, are the civilians.They are the victims in this as they always are in wars. To support the Americans means to betray your country and you may be killed by the insurgent militia. But to not help the Americans would mean when the Americans leave, they would be under the power of the insurgent militia which would likely be ruthless seeing even now they have no regard for them. The common Iraqi is caught between two evils and all they can do is just to keep quiet and hope for the best which is nowhere in sight.

This book is really an eye-opener of what the Iraqi war means and how it is really more of a war of winning hearts and minds but the payment are people laying their lives down for that cause. At the end of the day one has to ask is it really worth the lives given for this win and a more important question of what it really means to win?