Moment of Truth in Iraq
How a New ‘Greatest Generation’ of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope
by Michael Yon
Richard Vigilante Books
Those already familiar with Michael Yon’s work might have one question regarding his book: Is it simply a printed version of his dispatches from Iraq published on his popular Web site (michaelyon-online.com)?
The answer: No.
The best of those stories are in the book, but they’ve been expanded with the passage of time and military details too sensitive to use immediately, and told in the same gripping style that can now truly be called page turning.
Early on you’ll find yourself charging down an alley in Mosul on the heels of Lieutenant Colonel Erik Kurilla, a leader in every sense of the word: “LTC Kurilla began running in the direction of the shooting. He passed by me, and I chased, Kurilla leading the way. There was a quick and heavy volume of fire. And then LTC Kurilla was shot. Kurilla was running when he was hit – in three places, including his femur, which was shattered.
“The commander didn’t seem to miss a stride. He did a crazy judo roll and came up shooting from a sitting position,” Yon reports.
In a war where the situation changes depending on what you read, Yon is a man with credibility – he has more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist. Early in 2005, when I’d completed my first tour of duty in Iraq, I was searching the Internet for news when I found Yon’s page. I was hooked. Yon was simultaneously one of us – the guys in the war – and not one of us. While we knew of Iraq in our corner of the battlespace, he could move throughout the country – and did so. That freedom of movement afforded him opportunities that few would take, and that he initially took reluctantly.
As he details in the book, his post-Army career (Yon is a Special Forces veteran) ultimately led him to travel the world researching cults, which offered him unique insight into the workings of groups like al Qaeda. Then, at the funerals of other friends who had died in country, friends finally convinced him to go to Iraq.
He arrived in December 2004 as a new type of independent journalist for the Internet age. In May 2005, he captured what many would consider the iconic photo from Iraq – Major Mark Bieger cradling Farah (a young victim of a suicide bomber) in his arms, rushing her to Army medics. Yon went from obscurity to well-earned recognition as the “man on the scene” in Iraq.
The fact that officers trust Yon with access leads to dramatic scenes. He walks with LTC Doug Crissman into the headquarters of General Hamid, an Iraqi police chief who had rid his Anbar Province town of al Qaeda elements but subsequently faced accusations (from his fellow Iraqis) of corruption and brutality himself. The town was a powder keg of resentment and fear.
“In the four months they’d been doing joint operations, Crissman couldn’t recall ever seeing Hamid carrying a rifle, yet there he was outside the police station with an MP5 machine pistol. Police were on the roof with machine guns and AK-47s . . . We were outnumbered at least two to one.
“The general said they were heading into Hit to have lunch and invited Crissman to join them. Crissman jokingly pointed to Hamid’s MP5 and said, ‘If I go to lunch with you, do I need to bring my machine gun too?’
“Crissman’s interpreter translated and there were smiles and laughter, until Crissman asked if he could talk with Hamid inside his office.
“No one but Crissman knew what was about to happen. Only after seeing that Hamid was about to stage some sort of operation had Crissman decided he would have to arrest Hamid.”
Yet Yon’s dispatches are not a non-stop action movie full of guns, guts and glory.
He shares a rarely reported aspect of the American effort in Iraq – rebuilding: “The American soldier is the most dangerous man in the world,” he says, “and the Iraqis had to learn that before they would trust or respect us. But it was when they understood that these great-hearted warriors, who so enjoyed killing the enemy, are even happier building a school or making a neighborhood safe that we really got their attention.”
And Yon isn’t shy about pointing out American mistakes in Iraq, or explaining why – after five years in the country – soldiers are still charging down alleys with guns blazing, or why schools remain unbuilt. Among other American-made failures, Yon points out that “Madison Avenue at its best could not have done more for al Qaeda and other insurgent groups than the flattening of Fallujah, or the Abu Ghraib photos.”
But Americans learn from their mistakes. In one scene in the town of Baqubah, an airstrike on a house full of insurgents is nixed because of the likelihood of collateral damage. “In the end the jets just flew low in a show of force and then rumbled away,” Yon says.
Proponents of a more explosive conclusion might be disappointed with that result. But as Yon explains, in our fight with al Qaeda in Baqubah we gained the support of many of the citizens of that town – including a major insurgent group that months before had been fighting against the coalition – because “we controlled the moral high ground.” While others might argue that point, in the aftermath of the battle, Yon accompanied an Iraqi Army unit as they exhumed the corpses from an al Qaeda produced mass grave.
Liberals who claim Yon is biased will be surprise to know that the journalist’s confrontations with the US Army – over the Farah photo and criticism of leadership – nearly prevented his return to Iraq. Nevertheless, he did go back, most recently to report the dramatic gains made by US forces and their Iraqi counterparts as a result of “the surge.”
While in Baghdad he captured another iconic photo – Muslims and Christians rebuilding St John’s church in the Dora district. “The most wonderful thing to see was how hard the Muslim neighbors worked to get the church reopened. Local Muslims invited me to see the reopening; they wanted Americans to know they protect Christians in their neighborhood,” Yon explains.
You may never have seen either of those pictures before. If so, you are not alone. “American combat soldiers don’t want pity.” Yon says, “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.”
“We can win this war,” Yon declares. “And if we do it will be a victory of the same magnitude as the fall of the Soviet Union. It will not be a victory for the Republican Party. It will not be a victory for America and Great Britain and others ‘against’ Iraq. It will be a victory for freedom and justice. It will be a victory for Iraqis and for the world, and only then will it be a victory for us.”
Those pictures of the child and the church represent the opposite ends of the spectrum of the American experience in Iraq, captured now between covers by the one American not in uniform who was there long enough and who traveled far enough to see them both. Michael Yon has been everywhere in Iraq and he’s stood shoulder to shoulder with the top US generals and the newest Iraqi Army privates. “Moment of Truth in Iraq” is a milestone in combat reporting.
J.R. Michael is a veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq and blogs at mudvillegazette.com