Rating: 
Summary: Solid reporting tainted by political posturing
Review: "Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq," by Karl Zinsmeister, reports on the 2003 U.S. military action in Iraq as seen by the book's journalist author. It's a fascinating and well-written account. Zinsmeister offers a detailed and interesting look at the lives and work of the soldiers who serve in this war. The text is enhanced by many pages of photographs.
The book is full of snapshots of the interesting personalities the author encountered during his time with the 82nd. I was especially interested in his accounts of the nitty gritty details of the soldiers' lives--food, laundry, training exercises, chapel services, etc.
Zinsmeister vividly recalls some memorable scenes, such as his first glimpse of the historic Ziggurat of Ur. One particularly poignant episode involves the effort to aid a horrifically wounded child. I was also very touched by his portrait of the U.S. troops. He describes the soldiers as a diverse group of committed professionals who have a real concern for ethics and moral behavior.
Unfortunately, Zinsmeister spends too much of the book engaging in political argument. I think the book would have been stronger if he had just focused on reporting the facts, rather than overtly pushing a particular political agenda. His language during this political posturing is at times shrill and childish, especially when he resorts to name-calling. I also found problematic his boasting that the U.S. casualties in the Iraq war were "stunningly low." He notes that only 196 U.S. troops had died in Iraq at the time of his writing. But at the time I write this review that tally of dead has grown to over 1100, and the number wounded to over 8000. Zinsmeister's boast strikes me as short-sighted and grossly inappropriate in light of what has happened since his report from Iraq.
Despite my reservations, I enjoyed the book overall. Like Zinsmeister, I too got to see the 82nd up close in a war zone; as an Army reservist I was mobilized and sent to support the 82nd in Afghanistan in 2003. I too came away with great respect and admiration for the 82nd. When Zinsmeister sticks to the facts, he creates a memorable portrait, and I thank him for his work.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy Antidote
Review: . I've been trying to square the unrelenting scary stories, e.g. "quagmire," with the things I am hearing from returning marines, reports from the late and much missed Michael Kelly, of The Atlantic, and the occasional C-Span documentary which show things going well save a few specific spots. This book explains why. The "journalists" whose effort to write stories about what they don't understand and don't try to understand vs. those, like Kelly, and now Zinsmeister, who make the effort and report what's happening. This is not to say it's a bed of unrecognized roses in the Mideast. Read Anonymous's books on bin Laden, for example.
. The story of the non-looting of the Bagdad Museum--everything of value was put in vaults by the curators when the war started and only a handful of unimportant things were taken--shows the distinction between what is really happening and the what is really being reported and endlessly repeated. (Cf., my favorite book on the press, Sommerville, How the News Makes Us Dumb.)
. The book is also enlightening about why our military is as good as it is today, and how it bears no resemblance to what we remember in Vietnam. These men and women seem to step from the pages of a Clancy novel, except they are real people. I do have to agree with Tomas Rofkaur, that the book is a little light (only 254 pages in a large font). But however light it is, it tells a memorable story.
Rating: 
Summary: Invaded my dreams
Review: A lot of the war journalism I've read is much too heavy on "I" "I" "me" "me" and discussion of what the journalist is thinking, feeling, wanting. The tremendous strength of this book is that you really get inside the lives of the soldiers. It's about them, and brings them to life in a full and amazing way.I met a huge range of characters: medics, special forces soldiers, a medal-winning sniper, men who get shot, pilots, generals, Iraqis, civilians caught in the crossfire. Crisp and simple and unadorned portraits you won't forget. I thought I was sick of Iraq War discussions, but I heard this author on the radio and he sounded interesting. He is. I'm super-glad I got the book. This is a very different, very fresh perspective on the war, and a type of "up-close-and-personal" reporting on combat you rarely get. I found it gripping. P.S. I'm really not sure what book the reviewer who described this story as lacking action read. It sure wasn't the one I read. The action in this book has invaded my dreams.
Rating:
Summary: Invaded my dreams
Review: A lot of the war journalism I've read is much too heavy on "I" "I" "me" "me" and discussion of what the journalist is thinking, feeling, wanting. The tremendous strength of this book is that you really get inside the lives of the soldiers. It's about them, and brings them to life in a full and amazing way. I met a huge range of characters: medics, special forces soldiers, a medal-winning sniper, men who get shot, pilots, generals, Iraqis, civilians caught in the crossfire. Crisp and simple and unadorned portraits you won't forget. I thought I was sick of Iraq War discussions, but I heard this author on the radio and he sounded interesting. He is. I'm super-glad I got the book. This is a very different, very fresh perspective on the war, and a type of "up-close-and-personal" reporting on combat you rarely get. I found it gripping. P.S. I'm really not sure what book the reviewer who described this story as lacking action read. It sure wasn't the one I read. The action in this book has invaded my dreams.
Rating:
Summary: From the mother of an 82nd soldier
Review: After wiping away my tears at the end of this book, with pride for the American troops, I have to thank the author for such a clear picture and tribute to Operation Iraqi Freedom and the professionals at all levels who participated. I only wish the author would follow up with another book about the still-ongoing efforts in Iraq. We could use more clear thinkers like Zinsmeister reporting to the general public.
Rating: 
Summary: Honest but mediocre
Review: Although it is not clear what is the target audience of this book, it is certainly not the readers with a good background of knowledge on military matters, who want to learn more from a reporter with a real battle experience. The author has some interesting views on war generally and on the character of the US soldiers in particular, but he fails to give a pwerful image of this very importand campaign. It is true that action begins after thw first 70 pages and that the author talks a lot about himself and his personal experiences and inconviniences but these are not the main failures. The really disappointing feature is the absence of these small but interesting and little known details that thrill the readers who have not been witnesses themselves to the horrors and the adrenaline of a real battle.
Rating: 
Summary: A wanna be
Review: As a cadet at West Point, who is intending on going to the 82nd Airborne when I am commissioned, I was terribly dissapointed in this book. The author in this book does not tell a story of the 82nd Airborne. The book is more full of his personal life, and his political views on the war. Out of 213 pages, I would say that only about 60 of them are really about the people he met and the events he witnessed. The rest of the book is him detailing his life (much of it at home in New York), bragging about how he is right in his justification for the war, and how hard it was for him to get time to write his stories. He writes more about the time he spent writing, than he does anything else. It is so obvious that he felt that he had become a soldier. He tells of how he "was instructed on the use of the M-9," and the picture of him is in U.S. Army desert cammo. This guy is a joke. I would agree with what a previous reviewer wrote; the author may have been in some dicey situations, but there are no details of the events, it is all boring. Most of the information that he writes about involving what happened in Iraq is just headlines that were already told in the news, and almost all of those don't even include the 82nd. The bottom line is that this is a horrible book written by a horrible author who seems to think that he was transformed into a soldier.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but could have been much better
Review: As we learn more about the war in Iraq from the soldiers and reporters who were there, we're bound to get more accounts like "Boots on the Ground." They really seem to provide a good quick look at isolated battles, or a ground-level look at how history happened. This is an interesting read; Zinsmeister does an admirable job detailing his time with the 82nd, and anyone inclined to pick it up will probably be in familiar territory...it really conveys the feel of America's military these days, and numerous anecdotes he relays gave me the sense of pride that I've felt so often watching the military in action. However, I could have used a lot more detail (barely 200 pages, it was finished in less than a day of on-again-off-again reading), and a lot less of his opinion of the French, the UN, the Left, and the media, which I'd guess most people reading it would share anyway. There's a number of fairly bold typos and statements (saying that the A-10 stalls from the recoil of its cannon, calling an AC-130 a "Specter," etc.) that seem ironic considering how much of the last part of the book he spends going after the media. Still, if you want an "I was there" chronology from a guy embedded with a key US Army unit on the way into Iraq, this will offer a tasty appetizer before more substantial titles are released. I'd recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: bad, bad, bad, the 82nd Airborne deserves better
Review: Boots on the Ground is a terrible book about the war in Iraq. The book is very short (although in this case it is a blessing) and offers no real insight into the war in Iraq. I found the book to be poorly written and it fails to capture the essence of these wonderful troops going to war. The author spends a lot of time complaining about the conditions he is suffering through and not enough time capturing what the soldiers experience. The 82nd Airborne is an elite army unit but he reduces them into cartoon characters instead of letting us relate to them as people. His continual attacks on the left were also a distraction, save that for another book. This book was obviously rushed to be printed instead of focusing on the quality of the story. Bottom line there are much better books out about the war in Iraq. Save your money and get Devil Dogs, or the March Up. Get anything, just not this book.
Rating:
Summary: How it Was
Review: First-class reportage on one of the most distorted stories of recent years. Zinsmeister is editor of The American Enterprise, a right-of-center intellectual journal, and he makes his position clear up front, a vast improvement on the type of reporter who grandly proclaims his utterly perfect objectivity before filling you up with agitprop. And if you think you've heard the whole story, think again: the U.S. POWs who were executed before the fighting began, the Patriot antimissile system's perfect interception record, the Iraqi civilians who effectively acted as target spotters for our troops. I was tracking the invasion pretty closely, but I didn't see those stories in the mainstream press. Zinsmeister views Operation Iraqi Freedom as a prime example of America the Virtuous, and, flaws acknowledged, he makes his case.
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