THE official war in Iraq ended in mid-April, and predictably, every embedded journalist now has a story to tell. Now, one of the first books out on Iraq has been written by two of the first men in.
The book: ‘The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division,’ [Bantam Books, $24.95] is about “inside baseball, an attempt to explain what people do in the battlefield,” according to the book’s co-author, Bing West. The authors admit they had to finagle their way into the war. “Although initially reluctant to have a retired general and a former assistant secretary of defense on the battlefield,” they write, they were finally allowed in as “unpaid consultants in support of a Marine Corps public affairs film crew, at our own expense,” with the condition “they were on their own” and “kept a low profile.”
That, one soon learns, was easier said than done. The book makes it clear that there is no such thing as a former Marine. Retired USMC Maj. Gen. Ray Smith, the other co-author, is one of the most decorated officers since World War II. He went from rifle company commander in Vietnam to commander of the 3rd Marine Division, and is a national expert on infantry and urban warfare — no surprise for a Marine who served in Vietnam, Beirut, and Grenada.
This reporter was also embedded with the Marines, and thus was initially skeptical of what the former Marines would write, but West — who has several other published books to his credit — and Gen. Smith write with authority and legitimacy. Regardless of one’s position on the war, Smith and West deliver a balanced and blunt account. They write about the Marines with clear respect but don’t hesitate to write critically about the war itself; they saw combat with trained and experienced eyes, and their account will certainly become recommended reading on the war.
The authors appeared this week at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. Being the only journalist present made it clear how quickly Americans forget, even though the war in Iraq — now a deadly guerilla war — is killing American soldiers on a daily basis. They recounted lively anecdotes of the war and also mentioned some major American weaknesses. The Marines had limited communication on the battlefield, they said, due to the unsecured Kuwaiti cellular phones they had been issued. Gen. Smith tells how Major Gen. Mattis, the 1st Marine Division Commander, with a three-year-old map of Iraq taped to the side of his Humvee, directed the war by cellular phone. Conscious his calls could easily be monitored by the Iraqis, he used first names and euphemisms: “Tell Joe to bring all his friends to where we agreed to meet,” was an example of the communication used by the commanding general during the height of the war. Embedded reporters proved to be of significant use to the US forces, because — astonishingly — they had better communication technology than the troops on the ground. “They had excellent digital satellite communications, and used them, and command decisions were made because of this,” said Gen. Smith. “I know three-star generals who were making decisions based on what they saw on CNN and Fox.
They were getting information sooner from the media than from their own chain of command.” The fact that the Marines were able to travel 170 kilometers in 46 hours amazed the troops as much as anyone else, said the authors, which presented a number of logistical and supply problems.
Asked about the lack of US interpreters throughout the war, and the problems it caused the Marines and soldiers, Gen. Smith said: “We were always short of interpreters. All the front line units had them, but I know they were lacking in the support units, and that’s where they really needed them. It was a big problem.”
Questioned on why news reports from Iraq have soured, Gen. Smith smiled, and said: “Having spent a lifetime basically distrusting the press...”
“We came home in mid-April, and reporters who had not gone through the war replaced the embedded reporters,” he said. “I think this is why the tone changed. It’s too bad, because there are a lot of good things going on over there.”
— Arab News Review 30 October 2003
