In August 2006, many senior U.S. officials thought America had lost
the war in Iraq, as the senior U.S. Marine Corps intelligence
officer there wrote that control of al Anbar Province, the seat of
the raging Sunni insurgency, was irrevocably lost to the
insurgents. During that time, there were over 100 attacks per day
against U.S. military and Iraqi forces in al Anbar, and al Qaeda in
Iraq had planted their flag in the provincial capital, Ramadi,
declaring it the capital of their new Islamic State of Iraq. In
January 2007, as a spearhead of the newly decided Surge, the 3rd
Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment deployed to Ramadi as part of the
3rd Infantry Division, the first regular Army unit to deploy to
Iraq for a third time. The battalion and its parent brigade went to
work in a campaign that will be seen as the D-Day of the Global War
on Terror. Starting by clearing al Qaeda from the city of Ramadi
and replacing them with legitimate locally raised and trained Iraqi
police while simultaneously fostering the tribal movement known as
the Awakening Councils the brigade began to have tremendous
success. By April 2007, attacks within Ramadi went from twenty per
day to one or two per week. By mid-summer 2007, attacks in the
entire province were down 90 percent from 2006. Furthermore, the
Awakening had swept through the rest of Iraq, leading to the best
security situation seen since 2003. The 3rd Battalion, 69th
Armored, was the only battalion to participate in this campaign
from start to finish. Moreover, many of the US successes came
directly from this unit s work.Awakening Victory tells the story of
this incredible campaign through the eyes of the commander of the
3rd Battalion, who was right in the thick of the fight. The book
also provides a description of the Iraqi insurgency particularly al
Qaeda in Iraq that offers the depth and texture which are currently
lacking in most Americans' perceptions of the war. It describes the
battalion s actions, including incidents previously unknown to the
public, but it is not merely another blood-and-guts war story. The
author uses the actions of his battalion to describe a paradigm
shift that occurred, while in a totally foreign culture, yet
allowed for a move from a war of bombs and bullets to one of
partnership and ideas.The author, Lt. Col. Michael E. Silverman
(ret) is a political scientist and historian by education and has
extensive experience in both warfare and Middle Eastern affairs,
including a tour as an advisor to a Saudi Arabian infantry
battalion in Riyadh. Silverman served a two-year detail to the
Central Intelligence Agency at their Langley headquarters between
his last two tours in Iraq. There he was privy to the Director s
Weekly Iraq Briefing, a working group that discussed issues on the
war, many of which ultimately found their way into the President s
Daily Briefing. Well-versed in international affairs and world
religions, he writes with the authority of someone who has both
been blown-up by an IED and helped to shape US strategic policy for
the Global War on Terror. In this book he describes, from the very
front line, the exact turning point where the United States turned
a supposedly failed war into a possibly enduring success.REVIEWS
Awakening Victory is an excellent addition to the body of works
that assists Americans in understanding the complexities of the
Iraq War. Colonel Dick Camp, USMC (Ret.), author of Operation
Phantom Fury and Battle for the City of the Dead This is a riveting
account of the sharp end of fighting insurgents in Iraq. The
successes Silverman reveals should give pause to the pundits who
claim American forces are incapable of defeating a modern
insurgency. Kudos to Casemate Publishing for another terrific book
--Jerry D. Morelock, Colonel, US Army, ret.Editor in Chief,
Armchair General Magazine instructive first-hand account of how
Iraq's insurgents were defeated Publisher's Weekly an amazing book
about the progress made in Ramadi during the Anbar Awakening
.perfect blend... Cybertron Reviews
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