Guide for U.S. Forces Serving in Iraq, 1943 - Hardcover

War & Navy Department

 
9780955622106: Guide for U.S. Forces Serving in Iraq, 1943

Synopsis

'American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis like American soldiers or not. It may not be quite that simple. But then again it could.'This advice for American soldiers bound for Iraq was not written in 2004 but in 1943, when American forces first entered the country as part of the Anglo-American alliance confronting Hitler and the Axis powers in the Middle Eastern theatre.The problems encountered by the Allies in 1943 are astonishingly similar to those confronting American soldiers in Iraq today. With eerie foresight, the author of the book advises: that tall man in the flowing robe you are going to see soon, with the whiskers and the long hair, is a first-class fighting man, highly skilled in guerrilla warfare. Few fighters in fact, in any country excel him in that kind of situation. If he is your friend, he can be a staunch and valuable ally. If he should happen to be your enemy-lookout!The simple line drawings throughout, one of which shows an American soldier striking an Iraqi civilian above the eloquently brief caption: 'Don't!'

, provides a timeless comment on the difficulties of human behaviour in war which any US military commander today would have done well to consult.This book is an undiscovered gold mine of advice, much of which remains as hauntingly true as the day it was written, and casts a compelling shadow over the defining geo-political issue of our time.

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