Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq

Top positive review

Well written and recommended.

August 8, 2016

I sat on a plane beside a guy who was with author, or the other way around, during these experiences and as I listen to him tell his experiences I told him would get the book and read it. The book gives a small glimpse of why the US was in Iraq and what these young men endured during the first few days of the Second Gulf War. Well written and recommended.

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A real word view of modern warefare

September 17, 2018

It surfaces the contextual complexity of operating on behalf of a nation in the international arena when combat stress is at its highest. Clearly articulates the journalistic incompetence that is so unbecoming of a nation so generous and committed to world peace...and that at a staggering price that is in stark contrast to the broader journalistic integrity of those war reporters in Iraq.

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A real word view of modern warefare

September 17, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

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Well written and recommended.

August 8, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

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Douggie85

good

April 12, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I liked the book. I am a big fan of the 82nd so I decided to read it. The parts with the troops are very good. The book is a little political. I do agree with most of the things the author wrote, but still I didn't get the book to read about politics. It would be inetersting if the author did a follow up on the book and to see how his opinions changed l, if they did, a decade later.

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JerryT

Could Have Been Better

May 12, 2004

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The author works very hard at giving the reader a feel for the action, an "I was there" impression of actual combat and what was going on in his book. Unfortunately, I don't think his prose is much better than mine in too many cases. :( I sometimes that the feeling he had some auto style or theasaurus turned on to phrase his ideas. Quite frankly I think he is in desperate need of an editor if this is to go to a 2nd edition. I was also a bit turned off by some of his conservative ranting, but the liberals turn me off with their ranting too. I think he also maybe rushed this book a bit too quickly and needed a peer review. There were some factual errors regarding the 1991 Gulf War, usually numerical in nature, although these might be linked to a conservative viewpoint. Example: I believe he used a 100+ casualty figure for that bunker that had the civilians in it and was hit by mistake in 1991. I believe the correct total is more like 400+. He also gets off on a rant about the treasures looted from the museum that doesn't seem to jibe with the actual quotations of the director, etc. extensively quoted elsewhere. I think he does take a correct view of the library and some of the other damage (from fires and such). On the whole I'd call this average, although the "color," i.e., "I was there," might make it worth while. I think there are some better choices.

5 people found this helpful

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Michael J. Rentner

Little Action, Lots of Platitudes.

September 17, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Zinsmeister has a great attitude, and had a fantastic experience. He emphasis on the character and manliness of the soldiers he met was laudatory.
However, he spent far too much time telling us how much he admired these guys and not enough saying what they were doing. And then the last quarter of the book is simple philosophizing and politicizing for my tastes. I agree with all his sentiments, but I was hoping for more about the war and less about that.
I got the impression that he ran out of things to say that were worth while and needed to pad the book so it would be a bit thicker.
It's a quick read, I finished it in a day with a lot of breaks and only an hour here and there.
I suspect Zinzmeister kept his best writing for the periodical that sent him out there. Or I hope so anyway, because the anecdotes he shared here really only fill one or two short chapters, or magazine articles.
If you're expecting a thorough look at the war reveiwing what the 82nd Airborne were doing and when they were doing it, and how it all related to other units, you won't find it here. I'm hoping a more thorough account will be found elsewhere. Don't waste your time on this half-hearted attempt.

11 people found this helpful

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anything you wish to call me

Four Stars

May 13, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

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Melodramatic for its time, and it hasn't held up well at all

June 19, 2012

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This was one of the first on-the-ground books offered up by a reporter embedded with soldiers during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

For a variety of reasons, this book has not held up very well as the years have passed. If anything, it's a depressing example of just how little we knew in 2003, or how flawed our expectations were.

More than that, it doesn't offer a very realistic portrayal of soldiers. Zinsmeister does do a good job of describing the enviornment, and his own personal situation - so from a strictly memoir style, it's not a bad job. But the soldiers are presented as cardboard cutouts without personality beyond the most one-dimensional battlefield cliches...every line of dialogue is mawkish uber-patriotism - which I believe was said, but since I'm a veteran myself I know there's a lot more than that.

Consequently, the soldiers' cherrypicked dialogue only supports Zinsmeister's pro-Iraq, and pro-Republican political views. They don't seem like real people on the page. I also embedded with the 82nd Abn, twice, and I never heard a single paratrooper talk in the one-liners he presents.

He goes after other reporters a few times, and says how they make fun of the soldiers and are all anti-war liberals - but he doesn't name names. Why? Why not say "Reporter X with this newspaper said this..."? He didn't owe them any privacy. So I don't trust his account. I think he made it up to serve his preconceived notions.

It ends with an overly-optismistic conclusion that the war's all but won, and it will take a little last effort to finish it up. Didn't happen. So the book doesn't last. It's a very thin portrayal of a very specific moment in time that passed by a long time ago.

It could be used as an example of a reporter's first-hand experience during the invasion, but it doesn't offer anything more than that.

3 people found this helpful

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Flyrod

Five Stars

March 22, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Very happy with the product & cost, deliver was very fast.

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huntingirl11

Four Stars

December 18, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Good read. I enjoy reading military themed stories, especially those that are non-fiction.

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Marfak

A "Fair and Balanced" Look at the Troops

July 31, 2004

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

OK, OK, my title gave it away: I think the war in Iraq was the right thing to do. The author, an embedded journalist, writes in very clear and simple language about the hardships that our troops faced in the successful liberation of Iraq. They were fantastic, and the author agrees.

This book has taken some hits as being "biased," "incomplete," "one-sided," etc., and those criticisms are true. The author supports our troops and their mission 100% and he wears that on his sleeve. So if you agree with Michael Moore and believe that Saddam Hussein was lovable teddy bear of a man minding his own business in the paradise on the Euphrates when that evil Satan incarnate George Bush unilaterally attacked him after lying to the American people about him, save your money and time and do not buy this book. If you believe otherwise, you will not be disappointed.

7 people found this helpful

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