That call is a good analogy to the book as a whole - of getting reporting from the scene, showing real though under-reported progress, and showing real signs of a promising conclusion as a reward for my patience.

After finally getting this book a few weeks ago, I can say it was worth the wait. I got the signed version with a COA inside the front cover. It is in beautiful shape, well packaged as was the last book I got from Richard Vigilante Press.

The printing sure looks nice, and I can imagine this book holding up for a long time even if I left it on my coffee table for others to enjoy...which it may if I'm feeling generous. Or not, because I don't need any spills or stains or tears on my nice new book! Again, I'm no expert on books or printing, but this book reeks of quality not just of content but because it is a well-made book physically, and I don't expect the binding to fall apart any time this century.

I have been reading Michael Yon's dispatches for YEARS now, since he started getting buzz from blogs. His writing is not poetry, but it's perfectly good and perfectly suited for the subject matter. It conveys the message easily and with appropriate verbosity. Some matters can't be summed up easily, and others can. He details, with an insiders knowledge, many aspects of war and suffering and frustration and boredom that few others are able to.

He is able to gain the trust of the military people and even the Iraqi people he travels through Iraq with because he is willing to walk with them straight into mortal combat to get the story and get the photographs and convey an unadulterated message to the rest of us who can't be there to see firsthand how things are unfolding. Most of the stories he published in the heat of the Iraq war were the ones ignored or completely missed by the mainstream media and their reporters who rarely left the hotel.

Some of his photos have probably even been seen by many Americans, but the vast majority will be seen for the first time by people reading or thumbing through this book. Due to the quality and importance of the photographs and Yon's knowledge and ability to report directly from the thick of the fight, this book will simply NOT be replicated by anyone else any time soon, or ever, with regards to the Iraq war.

There's just no way because no one else was there like him, with access to what he had access to. And this is no partisan cheerleading war book, either. Yon's opinion is his opinion, and it is shaped by his access to and experience with the things he is talking about, including war policy. His travels and reports from Iraq (and other combat zones) have put him in contradiction to US military leaders, and he does not bow to any pressure to change his reports or bite his tongue.

Yon is the wartime reporter we need in every war, but we unfortunately don't have any more thanks to what I suspect may be a general lack of courage among our politicized journalists these days, and a partisanship in the media that views war through a simplistic lens that filters out substance. The fact that Yon is a rare breed means this book is one-of-a-kind.

Product Description

In March 2004, two of Michael Yon’s longtime friends were killed in the war in Iraq. Others in active duty and serving in harm’s way, reached out to him with their perspectives on what was happening in Iraq.

Their stories did not line up with reports from mainstream media. In December 2004, Yon landed in Baghdad to see reality for himself. He soon understood that the truth of this war was far too complex to be captured in a daily body count or a thirty-second sound bite. Committed to finding the truth, he stayed for most of the next three years.

This book assembles nearly 250 dramatic photographs, many never before published, and selections from Yon’s most compelling battlefield dispatches from his time embedded with U.S. and Coalition forces in Iraq during 2005-2008. This hybrid war journal and stunning photography book vividly illustrates how the war in Iraq was ultimately won—not with technology or overwhelming force, but with courage, persistence, and American values.

Available Now: Buy It Here!
Reviewed By: R. Romano