During a visit to Australia in 2007, then President George W. Bush was asked how the war in Iraq was progressing. He was overheard answering, "We're kicking ass." But how were the soldiers who were fighting the war faring? In this extraordinary talk at the Perth Writers Festival, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel discusses his book The Good Soldiers.
It is an unflinching account of the eight months in 2007 he spent embedded in U.S. army infantry 2-16, a battalion based in Baghdad. Finkel chronicles how he formed bonds with the soldiers and observed close-up how the war changed them. He details the difficult decisions he faced when writing the book, and how the troops and their families have reacted to reading it.
Warning: This talk contains some coarse language.
Bio
David Finkel
David Finkel is a staff writer for The Washington Post, for which he has worked as a journalist since 1990. In 2006 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series of articles he wrote on the U.S. Government's attempts to bring democracy to Yemen.
He has been a war correspondent for The Washington Post in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. In 2009 he published The Good Soldiers, an account of the eight months he spent embedded in U.S. army infantry 2-16, a battalion based in Baghdad which was part of U.S. military campaign known as the Surge.
Major branch of the U.S. military forces, charged with preserving peace and security and defending the nation. The first regular U.S. fighting force, the Continental Army, was organized by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, to supplement local militias in the American Revolution. It was placed under the control of a five-member civilian board, and U.S. military forces have remained in civilian control ever since. The U.S. Constitution named the president as commander in chief, and in 1789 the civilian Department of War was established to administer the armed forces. The Continental Army was officially disbanded in 1783, and a small regular army was established. Thereafter, the army's size increased during times of crisis, swelled by conscription, and decreased during peacetime. The Department of the Army is organized as a military section of the Department of Defense and is headed by the Secretary of the Army. The Army Staff gives advice and assistance to the secretary and administers civil functions, including the civil-works program of the Corps of Engineers. The army also administers the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 2000 there were about 400,000 soldiers on active duty.
Brief conflict in 2003 between Iraq and a combined force of troops largely from the U.S. and Great Britain; and a subsequent U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and protracted Iraqi armed insurgency against it. The trade embargo and weapons-inspection process that the UN imposed on Iraq following the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) had partly fallen into abeyance by 2001. U.S. Pres. George W. Bush argued that the September 11 attacks on the U.S. in that same year highlighted the threat to U.S. security posed by hostile countries such as Iraq. In November 2002 the UN issued Security Council Resolution 1441 demanding that Iraq readmit weapons inspectors and comply with all previous resolutions. Although inspectors did return to Iraq, Bush and Blair declared in early 2003 (despite objections by many world leaders) that Iraq was continuing to hinder UN inspections and that it still retained proscribed weapons. On March 20 the U.S. and Britain (with smaller troop contingents from other countries) launched a series of air attacks on Iraq, and a ground invasion followed. Iraqi forces were rapidly defeated, and on April 9 U.S. forces took control of the capital, Baghdad. British forces completed their occupation of the southern city of Al-Basrah the same day, and by May 1 the major combat operations of the invasion had been completed. However, the U.S. and other occupying forces were soon embroiled in escalating guerrilla warfare in Iraq that hindered Iraq's recovery and killed thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians. The war, long opposed by many throughout the world, also became increasingly unpopular in the U.S.
Oh poor things. Iraqis have a right to resist invasion and occupation. These soldiers are there on a mission of mass-murder and colossal theft. Burglars and robbers do not deserve sympathy when their plans go wrong.
well said, although i've stopped supporting the afghanistan war. there is no end to any of it, i feel terrible for the woman and children but the country has been stuck in the iron age for centuries and more war will not help. i support helping, but not warring. no more war, it's sickening.
Finkel is a Zionist and fully supports the abuse of Iraq and Gaza and promotes the death of impressionable young Americans by encouraging them to defend their country what he really means is his country which is Israel. Finkel helps turn them into murderers by glorifying their unforgivable video game like approach to killing. He should be put up on charges of crimes against humanity.
Thanks very much Mr. Finkel for the book and your obvious commitment to telling the truth about the real world, human aspects of the bloody war in Iraq. By the time 2003 rolled around, I was a reluctant Republican who'd already cast his last vote for one. I was deeply ambivalent about the Iraq war. On the one hand, WMD in Saddam's hands was a very troubling risk and Saddam was also a brutal, vicious dictator who terrorized his own people. On the other hand, I was deeply concerned about the actual human cost, first in American soldiers lives, but also for anyone killed in the conflict. As well, from a geo-political standpoint, I was deeply concerned about the unintended consequences of our foreign military actions. Most people don't know this, but the first Iraq war was the direct cause of Bin Laden taking up arms against the west, after we based troops in Saudi Arabia, the holiest of holy lands for Muslims - but I digress. Mr. Finkel's book does justice to the human cost of war. Tens of thousands of American families have been deeply wounded by this war. It make sme think very hard about what is really worth going to war over, and what is not. I love the fact that Finkel doesn't preach, it's not something to preach about - it's a very difficult subject. But every American should really be clear about the costs. Ultimately, I've shifted gears and shortly after the Iraq war began I became a libertarian and now support a non-interventionist policy for the U.S. I can't justify making more U.S. soldiers die and suffer in another war of choice.
I support our mission in Afghanistan, but the invasion of Iraq was a wholly unjustified war of aggression.
Bush really helped Iraq.
Bush caused the death of hundreds of thousands of innocents, and displaced 3-4 million Iraqis, many of whom are now living as refugees in Syria & Jordan. How did we help them?
The biggest winners in Iraq were Al Qaeda who grew 10X. and IRAN, whose Shiite friends now control most of Iraq.
BTW, we've had about 4,370 Americans killed and 31,000 wounded. For what? To free Iraqi oil and punish Saddam??
Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld should be tried as war criminals.
member. 
