“Moment of Truth In Iraq,” by Michael Yon, Richard Vigilante Books, 227 pages, $29.95.
Michael Yon is the Iraq War’s Ernie Pyle. “Moment of Truth In Iraq,” is Yon’s battle report to the American people.
How are we doing? Yon states we are winning. We have not yet won, but victory is near. This, despite almost having lost the war in 2006 — again — according to Yon.
Does this sound different from the appraisal of the nightly news and your newspaper? What you see often depends on where you are. Yon is at the heart of the war.
Yon, a freelance journalist, has spent much of the last four years embedded with Coalition troops in Iraq. Like Pyle, he presents the war from the soldier-eye view. He picks a unit and stays with it, often for months at a time.
If any journalist has the pulse of this war, it is Yon. With the mainstream media, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Negative stories get play on page one. Quiet successes are forgotten. An event’s significance is less important than its drama.
Yon eschews that approach. He realizes that news includes more than body counts. His war is told from the ground up.
He walks patrols with American, British and Iraqi soldiers. He shows how they interact with the local population. He does not pretty up the picture. He shows the good, the bad and the ugly.
The resulting picture is both astonishing and inspiring. Yon explains the turnaround he observed in Iraq is due to several converging trends. The excellence of the American in uniform contributes.
Yon shows how this has shaped the battlefield. Iraqis respect our troops. Iraqi soldiers imitate our troops, and Iraqi civilians trust them.
Al-Qaida’s barbarity
helps, too. They behave like a homicidal cult. This turned Iraqis against them.
In 2007, insurgent groups fighting Coalition — such as the 1920 Brigades — switched sides. They are now helping us root out al-Qaida.
They do not love us, but they know we are trying to clean up the garbage and restore order. They know al-Qaida isn’t.
Finally, Iran’s meddling helps the Coalition. Iraq and Iran have been historical adversaries.
Yon shows how Iran’s support of Iraqi Shiite militia armies helped unite Iraqis (including Shia Iraqis) behind our efforts.
“Moment of Truth In Iraq,” depicts a nation-balanced knife-edge between victory and defeat.
If you want to learn what is happening in Iraq, read Yon’s book and judge for yourself.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian and model-maker, lives in League City.
