Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsDon't bother
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2009
It's hard to imagine that an experienced author could make battlefront journalism more tedious than exciting, but Bing West accomplishes that feat in this book. As other reviewers have noted, it's a disorganized collection of vignettes that meanders to a questionable list of "lessons learned." To make matters worse, West doesn't provide reader guidance in the form of maps or timelines. While slogging through this mess, I got the impression that West simply handed his travel notes over to some editors who cleaned up the prose and rushed it into print.
If I hadn't previously read many books and articles about our efforts in Iraq, I would have found "The Strongest Tribe" nearly incomprehensible. For a much shorter, better organized, more insightful, and more organized battlefront journal, I would recommend Michael Yon's "Moment of Truth in Iraq."
West touches on some of the Washington politics that affected events in Iraq, but it's pretty clear that he has little knowledge of that aspect. Even so, he seems consistent with many other authors who believe that the insurgency problem was due primarily to dereliction of duty by the State Department. To explore this topic further, I strongly recommend Douglas Feith's "War and Decision" and William Timmerman's "Shadow Warriors." Your reading time will be much better spent with those books than with "The Strongest Tribe."
