Michael Yon's Moment of Truth
By Ben Domenech Posted in Book Reviews | Michael Yon | War — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Michael Yon does not have time to talk to you. There are things going on. The front is ablaze with fire. The sound of gunfire is not distant, but down the block. And yet here he is, sitting down across from you, setting a bottle of scotch on the table, taking off his sunglasses to see straight into your eyes. He is tired, yes, tired of it all – but he has a story to tell you, a story you must hear, and you are damn well going to listen.
"There is a clear battlefield conversion from ink to blood, from blood to ink," he says. And you understand.
Yon's new book, Moment of Truth in Iraq, reads as this conversation would: the unflinching staccato of a man who has seen more than almost anyone else of this war, this absolutely necessary but unquestionably mismanaged war, and the men and women who fought and died to win it.
It is the story of Fallujah and Anbar. Deuce Four. The Welsh Warriors, Rorke's Drift Company. The Holy Hand Grenade. How to Get Killed. Petraeus. The Surge. The Sons of Iraq. The Seven Rules. Farah.
Do not say another word about these things – do not write about them as if you know what you are talking about – until you read this book. Until you set yourself down and talk over scotch and sand as the explosions echo.
You will listen. Again and again, unwise policies devised by diplomats throw new perils upon them. Again and again, Yon heads out with groups of young men, soldiers who do know what awaits them, and yet conquer their fear, set it aside to do what must be done.
He checks the windows first.
If you are going on a combat mission and soldiers have not cleaned all their windows to a sparkle, do not go with them. Soldiers with dirty windows are not watching for tiny wires in the road, nor are they scanning rooftops. They are talking about women, football, and the cars they will buy when they get home. I will not go into combat with soldiers with dirty windows.
Clean windows, so they will see what's coming. Sometimes they will stop it before it comes. Sometimes they will not. Yon is there for it all. He is determined that these stories – the stories the media at home will not tell you, the stories you must dig to find amidst the latest celebrity marriages, hot new gadget, and Hollywood gossip – will not go unwritten. He will write them himself, in the back of a Humvee, and send them back across the globe. And you will listen.
You cannot read Yon's book in bed. I found it hard enough to read it sitting down – it rips out tales that will make you frustrated, then angry, then grateful, and then you weep. But clear your reading list. You must read it, because it is the most truth about this war that you will ever read, a tale of blood and sand and heroes and villains – and hidden underneath it all, hope.
The military is at war. America is at the mall…American combat soldiers don't want pity. They're ready to fight to the end; they just don't want it to be for naught. They have been fighting for two nations, one of which didn't seem to notice. The Iraqis noticed.
Michael Yon's Moment of Truth 10 Comments (0 topical, 10 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
he tells of AQ in Diyala where they would bring the family of a young boy to dinner and serve them his baked body....to show them what would happen if they defied them....the enemy in this fight is subhuman and we should never forget that.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
I read the story when he first posted it online and I still wish I hadn't read that one.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
more brutality than that in the book and it is an eye opener....when I wince at a passage I just think to myself we have the best of the US fighting these subhumans and the very least I can do is know the enemy and not put my head in the sand and pretend it away...that is how we are at this impasse in the debate over the war in Iraq....if 50 percent of the American public knew the enemy we fight for real not in the MSM views...we would be having better success at winning this war quicker.
Think about that, if 50 percent of the public stood up to their politicians and demanded they fund this war and give our military everything they needed and did not allow the D's to hold these dog and pony shows for the MSM we would be much further along.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
I've been reading Yon's dispatches since 2003 or 2004, and his entries have a sense of reality that you don't see in the NYT or WA Post. You get the sense that you're getting the straight and unblemished story from him. So when he says the situation has improved (as he has in the last nine months), people should really take notice.
1. McCain, 2. Thompson, 3. Giuliani, 4. Romney
IMO the major failing of all Iraq/Afghanistan and the overall GWOT is the failure to report and publicize these facts that Mr. Yon is presenting.
The military is at war. America is at the mall
Is probly the very best statement as to the American attitude today about where our priorities lie.
_____________________________
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
--Aristotle
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
Iustum et tenacem propositi virum non civium ardor prava iubentium, non vultus instantis tyranni mente quatit solida.
-Quintus Horatius Flaccus
could read this book. I don't think I want to. I know there are are nightmares in real life there. No, can't do it.
But I will have a copy. When I run in to the fool who spouts his ill-informed logic. I'm sure this book will esay to open and find whatever point I need to make. I have read articles of Yon. I know he knows. All I know it is a nightmare I don't want to read about. I love and am grateful to our soilders.
They go and fight while I stay here and live.
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
John Paul Jones (letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont,16 Nov.1778)
Particularly:
This is advice that I, J.D., and others have been pleading with the public to follow. Even those who think that they are helping generally get details (or larger facts) incorrect, simply out of a lack of contextual knowledge and a dearth of understanding of the thousands of moving parts and millions of shades of grey that make up a combat effort on a small scale -- let alone a massive one like the effort taking place in the massive country of Iraq.
Those who claim the most knowledge or authority -- those who write with the most apparent authority -- are generally those who know the least. Those who have the knowledge, understanding, and experience know that not only is there a great deal that they do not know, but that what they do know will likely have changed by the time they have put pen to paper and written about it.
Yon has pretty much seen it all in Iraq. Read his missives, his dispatches, his articles, and his book -- and absorb every word. His is a voice that is more valuable than almost all others combined regarding the effort in Iraq; it is the voice of experience.