Book Review - War Journal: My Five Years In Iraq

I am posting this Goodreads book review of mine from a couple years ago as a precursor to my next post. It is well worth a read on its own merits:


War Journal: My Five Years In Iraq by Richard Engel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is book is fascinating because of its perspective, but more than a bit disturbing at the same time. It's a little difficult to read at times, yet the pages fly by and the time passes quickly for a five year period. Through the eyes of a long-time Middle East reporter the reader gets a clear picture of just what a mess Iraq was, is, and is likely to be for the foreseeable future. The book runs from the point of the capture of Saddam Hussein and thus the terminus of the then-current motive for the invasion (the 'WMDs' pretext having long since vaporized), through the various flavors of civil war, phony 'show' elections and corrupt US-installed governments up to the 'surge' that was supposed to solve everything.

At the same time Bush and Rumsfeld are railing at home against the 'negative' press that is coming out of Iraq, Engel tells of dodging body parts falling out of trees as he walks by and Iraqi citizens felling palm trees to build defenses against their fellow Iraqi Muslims. Once the centuries-old Shia-Sunni animosities erupt in full-force, the "democratic" elections that the US government touted so proudly quickly fade to the sideshow status that they deserve.

The lessons in the book are many -- the unreal, amazing crazy-quilt patchwork of half-truths and outright inventions that came out of the Bush administration as things went from bad to worse; the frustration of being a journalist who knows the truth, but is faced with a public (and sometimes editors) who don't want to hear it. The one abiding truth that permeates the book from beginning to end, is Engel's continuing admiration, respect, and understanding for the courage and resourcefulness of the US military personnel hopelessly caught in this mess...even when they were forced to stage-play a particular part for the benefit of the folks back home.

Finally, if there was any shred of glamor left in anyone's mind about being a "war correspondent" this book should remove it permanently. Engel's personal experiences, observations, and frustrations with a situation that demanded reporting, but resisted the truth at every turn, as well as personal fears that come out in snatches of his personal video journal lend a humanity and credibility to the story that sometimes seems to be the only thread of sanity in a very strange time.