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97 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful!, June 10, 2006
This review is from: Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy (Hardcover)
Regardless of political affiliation or attitude about the war, everyone should read this book. It is not pro/con or red/blue. It is the story of a man's fight for survival in the sand of a foreign land and a courtroom of his own country. He tells a heart warming yet heart wrenching story.
There is something for everyone in this book. It is a life story, a love story, a war story, and a courtroom story. The reader is given deep insight into his love for his family, his men, and his country. It is not written as a daily account of war from a daily log. It is written from the heart of a man. He challenges us to think, to soul search, and expand our thinking.
There are great sacrifices being made in this war, but only by a few. After reading Warlord, you will know this man, and yourself, better.
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35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid, June 14, 2006
This review is from: Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy (Hardcover)
Warlord is a solid memoir of a Marine in combat. The best account to come out in many years, and one that I will not soon forget. Pantano's true story is as honest as a first hand account of a grunt can be. The excellent manner in which Pantano gives you the essential details, that still paint a vivid picture keep the reader glued to this book. The style of the story is unique, combining the court room drama and the circumstances that put him there. Written in this manner the book is tight and fast paced.
The internal struggle of an intelligent man going in combat is portrayed perfectly here. Pantano shows the constant inner struggle of a leader doing what is right and what he needs to do to get all his men home alive, the entire time doing that under frustrating rules of engagement. At times this would be hysterical if it were not true.
This hero's story is one that should be known to every American. He sacrificed everything he thought dear to him, and more than he could have possibly imagined. His story is both touching and motivating. This story should be required reading for every man considering becoming a United States Marine, and this will end up on the "Commandant's Reading List."
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166 of 200 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Step in the right direction, June 7, 2006
This review is from: Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy (Hardcover)
Full disclosure: I was 2nd Lt Pantano's chaplain in Iraq in 2004.
The book is a quick read. The intermixing of the Article 32 hearing report with Lt Pantano's background helps the book's pacing considerably. The writing is crisp for the most part, and it certainly gives one as good an impression as any mere book can of the realities of combat, both in theater and in a military court. I frequently found myself back in the Battalion Aid Station, or up in the C-I-C as the reports came in.
But the book is more than just a good summer read that does an excellent job of presenting this war from the perspective of a bona fide warrior.
Our military, and certain intelligence assets are at war, but we have not yet become a nation - a people - at war. To the extent people read and really pay attention to what 2nd Lt Pantano is saying, this is a step in the right direction. I am still afraid that it will take another attack on US soil to drive the point home that we are in a war with a determined enemy, though I certainly hope not. If that happens, I pray it puts steel in the American spine and inspires a remorseless pursuit of victory in our people, because, as I have said before, this war will not be won until we do to our enemy what Sherman did to Georgia. The legal beagles, euro-weenies, and hyper-sensitive won't like that, but it is so. War is force - disciplined violence with the intention of breaking the enemy's will or killing him. We can win their friendship after the war. Until that time, we must face the facts. Our enemy will not permit a truce (a la Korea). We cannot afford a defeat (a la VietNam). And one cannot achieve victory with half-measures. The sooner our enemy fears us, the sooner we will win - and the fewer people (on both sides) who will die in the process.
As a great military leader once said, "Audace, audace, tou jour l'audace!" Lieutenant Pantano is nothing if not audacious.
It's a good read and I heartily recommend it.
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