Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq (Hardcover)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Vivid and eminently readable, Danelo's book portrays a marine infantry battalion in action in Iraq in April 2004. Most of the fighting was done in small-unit actions, in which the Iraqis had the advantages of knowing the territory and having, if not the support, at least the lack of opposition by the locals. The marines' advantages lay in training, discipline, and firepower quite aside from the artillery and air support they could call on. Above all, they had a collective code of ethics enabling them to maintain high unit cohesion against opponents who were frequently faction-ridden and as apt to shoot one another as to shoot the marines. The book subscribes to the thesis that the U.S. Marine Corps has substantially revived the ethos of the classical Spartan warrior and thereby has made its men the contemporary masters of ground combat. Another of those books that suggest that failure in Iraq, if it does come, won't come through the failure of U.S. ground troops. Roland Green
Amazon