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On Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom Hardcover – May 1, 2005

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Gregory Fontenot (Author)
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Gregory Fontenot (Author), E.J. Degen (Author), David Tohn (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars 10 customer reviews
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  1. On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign: The United States Army in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, May 2003-January 2005
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 542 pages
  • Publisher: US Naval Institute Press; 1st Naval Institute Press Ed edition (May 1, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1591142792
  • ISBN-13: 978-1591142799
  • Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,321,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFine, Detailed Operational Study of OIF
By S. Paul on September 15, 2005
Format: Hardcover
To date, most of the published writing about the Second Iraq War has consisted of politcal/moral debates about the "rightness" of the war, or of first-hand accounts by soldiers and especially embedded journalists. Some of this work has been excellent--"Thunder Run" and "The March Up" come to mind-- and some have been self-serving, anti-war diatribes like "In the Company of Soldiers". "On Point" was commissioned by the Army as a history of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) through the fall of Saddam's regime in April, 2003, but despite the "official" stamp, and viewed in the context of the other books about the war, the book provides a refreshingly objective and highly informative analysis of the campaign.

The authors begin by outlining developments in US Army training, doctrine, logistics, and inter-service cooperation from the First Iraq War (Desert Storm) to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and how these improvements made OIF (at least initially) such a success. The actual campaign description is minutely detailed, with numerous maps, charts and diagrams describing everything from unit manuever schemes and objectives, to logistics routes, even Iraqi deployments and order of battle. Army success and failures are clearly delineated, along with the authors recommendations for the future. Readers familiar with Bob Scales superb official history of Desert Storm will find the format and scope of "On Point" pleasingly famliar.

Unlike the Scales work however, unless the reader is comfortable with professional military writing, the prose of "On Point" may seem a bit intimidating. Sown thick with acronyms and abbreviations, I found the writing to be somewhat dry, and the battle descriptions and analysis almost forensic.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsGreat information, but poor quality of printing
By John R. Sponauer on August 19, 2005
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I've been waiting for a print version of this book to be available for some time, since the online version ( ... ) is hard to collect and read on the go. I was therefore thrilled to see the Naval Institute pick up the title and publish it.

While I am happy with the fact that I now have this report in one, bound copy, the printing of this leaves something to be desired. The entire book is black and white, and not a clear copy as it is, rendering many of the photos difficult to see or interpret. Grey boxes appear as they would on a poor copy machine.

The text is, for the most part, clear, and the story of course is as interesting as ever, but if you expect a high-quality reproduction of the online report, you likely will be disappointed.
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1.0 out of 5 starsBook format is jacked up.
By Randall T. Sumner on September 13, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I bought the digital edition and the formatting is so jacked up that I didn't even finish reading. I'm a veteran with the 3ID and did the initial push and the content of the book is exactly what I expected; its too bad that the digital content is so messed up that they even charge for it. Amazon has no business selling or accepting money for this. If you want to read it, get the paperback!
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3.0 out of 5 starsUseful within limits
By JOrth on November 5, 2006
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Considering the political and bureaucratic pressure the authors may have faced, it is perhaps unfair to measure this book against "civilian" histories of Operation Iraqi Freedom (which are also horribly limited at this point, thus the temptation to try On Point). Therefore, I preface my comments with the caveat that the authors deserve praise for their service and hard work and my criticisms/comments are designed to help potential readers rather than take the author's to task.

The most glaring difficulty with On Point is in the news on a daily basis. Not so much that the book does not cover the insurgency (in doesn't), as that it does not cover the transition to an insurgency. It was the "conclusion" of OIF that will interest students of the conflict. It's no surprise the authors avoided this topic, but it does make the study much less interesting. I would have thought it better to have tackled this head on and at least set the tone for what promises to be a decades long debate, but clearly for reasons of time or politics the authors avoided this.

My second comment is more personal, and perhaps wiser minds will eventually disagree, but the too frequent mention of Carl von Clausewitz in the conclusion seemed to validate all my fears about what the military did not learn from the conflict. OIF studied without the insurgency seems to offer a clean validation of the Army just as it is (OK, with a couple minor improvement here and there...). Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth. The compelling lesson of OIF wasn't that "Carl von Clausewitz would find none of this surprising." (p 413) It was that there is no clear on/off switch for war. War, insurgency, peacemaking, terrorism, rebuilding, all seem to go on simultaneously.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsOn Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom
By Michael Rubin on August 23, 2006
Format: Hardcover
Sensational video feeds and embedded journalist accounts shaped public perception of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S.-led military campaign to topple Saddam Hussein. Accounts by embedded journalists added color but did little to illuminate broader strategy and planning. On Point, the official U.S. Army history of the campaign, is therefore a welcome addition to those accounts. It is a masterful compendium of the planning and operations that ultimately led to the U.S. capture of Baghdad. In addition to chronicling each units' drive forward, the authors add needed perspective. They contextualize the Iraq mission within the history of U.S. military campaigns: with concurrent operations in Afghanistan, the Iraq campaign marked the first time since World War II that U.S. armed forces conducted major campaigns simultaneously in different areas of operation. Not since the Korean war had a combined and joint land component directed all ground operations. The authors place special emphasis on new developments in information-based warfare. Digital linkages and new technology enabled unprecedented air-ground coordination. The authors also describe what lessons influenced military planners. They describe changes in military doctrine in the twelve years between the liberation of Kuwait and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and include summaries of lessons learned from U.S. operations in Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Urban combat preoccupied the war planners. On Point describes various seminars, discussions, and exercises to prepare the U.S. Army to fight in Baghdad. Numerous photos, maps, and charts bring the descriptions to life. The authors offer considerable detail, not only of planning--training exercises in Germany, for example--but also describe how the U.S.Read more ›
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