The Good Soldiers by David Finkel

Combining the action of Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down" with the literary tone of Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers" takes an unforgettable look at those in the surge, the heroes and the ruined, returning from the Iraq War.

Puts the war in Iraq/Afghanistan in a grimmer light and contributes a real-life narrative understanding of the futility of the current war and its strategies. The stories of these 19 & 20 year old soldiers and their families, with their horrible physical and mental wounds, combine to create a almost incomprehensible picture of horror and anger and frustration that makes me question all the opinions I had about this war before reading the book.
I listened to a podcast interview with the author ( http://fora.tv/2010/02/27/David_Finkel_The_Good_Soldiers ) and felt compelled to read the book. The author spent time physically embedded with the Army unit he writes about, and does not editorialize about the facts and experiences. Great journalism at work.

This is one of those books that I am hesitant to attempt to review at all, other than to describe it as heart-rending. Finkel has given a great gift to these service members in bearing witness to what it was like to be in the worst part of Baghdad during a terrible part of a terrible war. Reading this now, against a backdrop of grim ISIS-related headlines, merely underscores the importance of the book, and the importance of not growing numb to the plight of an area of the world still very much war-torn.

This is a tough book to read because of the subject matter, but it should be required reading for all Americans, especially those who thought the Iraq War was a good idea.