Customer Reviews

Battle for Fallujah: Occupation, Resistance And Stalemate in the War in Iraq

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This choice of title is significantly misleading on the part of either author or publisher, or both. It is not really all that much about the battle OF Fallujah, its about the battle FOR the hearts and minds of the people in the city through civil affairs programs, which the author concludes were woefully neglected by US military authorities in Iraq. Now, it could be true that the army and Marines did not focus much on civil affairs, but the author comes across as having a major axe to grind and loses credibility in the process. Moreover, he has not done his homework either. On page 23, he states that in one firefight, women and children were killed, according to the Fallujah General Hospital. What Foulk either does not know or chose to ignore, is that the hospital was completely sympathetic to the insurgents and was the source for a lot of propaganda and misinformation against coalition forces, and thus can not be trusted to provide accurate, truthful information. Unfort., Foulk takes the claim at face value, a big error. Another problem is that Foulk is not a writer. If you are going to write a book, you ought to have good prose, and be able to communicate in an effective, flowing narrative. Foulk fails badly here, as the book reads like the first draft of an undergraduate research project. (His transitions are jarring, he includes many unexplained references to people and places, and uses words such as "dove" when he means "dived.") I was not surprised to see that with such sub-par writing that the book was so poorly edited as well, given that the publisher--McFarland--has a track record of turning out shoddy work. In fact, I doubt anyone actually read it before publication. This is really a book to be avoided. One should read instead Bing West's "No True Glory."

This book gave me an insight into the history of the muslim religion and their internal struggles without it feeling like a history lesson. I now understand more about the War in Iraq than most of the reporters I hear on TV. Extrememly well written and so pertinent to todays events that this is a must read for anyone who cares about America, World Peace and our future.