Books: The Making of a Combat General
Rick Atkinson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 08, 2004; 11:00 a.m. ET
Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Atkinson was embedded with the 101st Airborne during the war in Iraq and filed some of the most insightful and compelling dispatches from inside the combat. During his time with officers and soliders, Atkinson witnessed their preparations for battle, stood next to the commanders as they made war-time decisions, and experienced the intesity of conflict along with the troops. In his new book, "In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat," Atkinson follows Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st, from Kuwait to Baghdad.
Atkinson will be online Monday, March 8, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss his experience in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus and the 101st Airborne and his new book.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
A staff writer and former assistant managing editor at The Washington Post, Atkinson is also author of "Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War" and "An Army At Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943" for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize while embeded with the 101st in Iraq.
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washingtonpost.com:
Rick, thank you for joining us online. In your book, "In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat" you take readers inside the 101st Airborne's command. Why did you choose the 101st and what is your connection to the division?
Rick Atkinson: Good morning, and thanks for having me. My only real connection to the 101st is through the commander, Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, whom I've known since he was a major. In early January I visited him and the division at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, and asked if he'd be willing to take me along if the division deployed to the Middle East. He graciously assented.
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arlington, va:
I had the great fortune to discover "An Army At
Dawn" last February, and began reading it just before
the war in Iraq began. I had read a great deal about
WWII, but not much about the North Africa
campaign, so I was pleased to get such masterful
study of the subject, and such poetic prose. I've now
read all of your books, and am anxiously waiting for
the rest of the trilogy. Comment & Question -- it
was eerily serendipitous to be reading that book as
the Iraq war was underway; it gave context to the
war -- imagining 24/7 news coverage and
imbedded reporters as we entered the war against
Germany with the missteps and the lives lost in
North Africa. I am a great fan of 24/7 news and
watched the war wall-to-wall, but have strong
reservations about the wisdom of televising a war in
real time. I would like your thoughts on this, since I
believe you to have the best insight of any of the war
correspondents.
Rick Atkinson: Thanks for your generous comments, which I appreciate. Obviously there are distortions that can come from intimate, real time reporting straight from the battlefield. In truth, I don't think there's much that can be done about it now; were the Pentagon to try to completely eliminate reporters from the fight, as they did in Grenada in 1983, I believe there would be a substantial uproar. Rather, I think it's the responsibility of news organizations to be fair, measured, thoughtful, and careful; I believe the Army and other services felt that the recent coverage in Iraq was generally all of these things, with a few notable exceptions.
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Raleigh, NC :
Gen. Petraeus has a Ph.D. In an army that is characterized as ant-intellectual is he considered atypical of most U.S. Army officers?
Rick Atkinson: Well, certainly there aren't all that many soldiers with doctorates, but it's not unknown. And I'm not sure I'd agree with the characterization of the Army as anti-intellectual. There are some soldiers who would fit that description, but as an institution the Army has for many decades laid great stress on its own educational system--the Command and General Staff College, the War College--as well as intellectual development through graduate school, etc. Most officers are encouraged to at least get a master's degree.
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Lancaster, pa:
Are you shocked at how difficult it has been for the U-S and other coalition forces to battle the insurgents. Did the US Commanders expect this when they were planning for the war.
Rick Atkinson: I'm frankly not shocked. There's a long, sad history in Mesopotamia of 1) invasion and 2) resistance to invasion. No, the military didn't sufficiently anticipate the difficulties they're having now. There was much focus on fighting the organized Iraqi military, especially the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard units, and not much attention paid to the Fedayeen or to the prospect that those who had the most to lose in Iraq from an American invasion, namely the party hacks, the intelligence agency thugs, the Saddam loyalists, the Tikrit tribalists, et al, would put up a determined, murderous resistance.
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boca grande, fl:
I was intrigued by the description of "tactical
awareness" as likened to hearing a radio across a
tent, and watching a battle develop through different
eyes -- were you able to do that during your time
with the 101st?
Rick Atkinson: I'm afraid I never developed the capacity to pick out the garbled voice on a radio across the room with the adroitness that someone like Gen. Petraeus has. I did understand his reference to seeing the war through different eyes, and came to have a better appreciation for the need to view the battle as an aviator, a tanker, an infantryman, a supply officer, etc.
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Pendleton, Oregon:
Rick, I admire your work and have used
"The Long Gray Line" to great advantage
in my Washington State University course
on the US and Vietnam. Students
consistently rave about that book. I
wonder if you see any rising stars in
national life among the men and/or
women involved in the Iraq war and
reconstruction. There certainly were a lot
of them in the West Point class of l966,
especially Wes Clark and Jack Wheeler.
Keep up your good work-- you're a truly
gifted writer.
Rick Atkinson: Thanks for that, and I'm glad to hear the THE LONG GRAY LINE still has legs. Sure, there are some fantastic young leaders in the ranks today. I found that the brigade commanders in the 101st, for example, were uncommonly excellent, every one of them general officer material. The three infantry brigade commanders--Joe Anderson, Ben Hodges, and Mike Linnington--were about as good as they come.
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Washington, D.C.:
After reading your book "Crusade" and Gen. Trainor's "The General's War" I was amazed at the contrast in generalship between Franks, Abizaid, Petraus on one hand and Schwartzkopf, Franks, and Luck on the other. While it is true that Don Rumsfeld forced the Army to do many things, it is clear that this former crop of generals pursue war with far more aggression and elan. Is it just the people Rumsfeld picked and pressured or does it indicate a much different type of Army leader then 10 years ago??
Rick Atkinson: Interesting observation, although I'm not sure I buy it. Schwarzkopf had elan, and ultimately did the job he was sent to do, but he was seriously flawed as a commander in my view. His uncontrollable temper, and the routine flaying of his subordinates, made some subordinates fearful of bringing him bad news, always a dangerous proposition. Hard for me to imagine that you could have had a general with more aggressiveness than Maj. Gen. Buff Blount, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, whose assault on Baghdad was a classic example of the offensive spirit.
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Cap Hill:
Very interesting articles. I will have to look up some of your books.
In your time with the Major General, was there any discussion of the reasons we were fighting the war, or was he more focused on the logistics of the task at hand?
And is he well respected by his men? From your descriptions he seems like a compelling leader.
Thanks.
Rick Atkinson: Thanks. We did at times discuss the reasons behind the war, and the timing of the war, but certainly he was totally occupied with the monumental task of getting his division to the theater and then getting it into the fight. Dave Petraeus is indeed universally respected and instantly obeyed. In truth, some find adoration difficult. He's got an intensity and a competitiveness that unsettles some. But all in all he's widely recognized as one of the Army's best.
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West Coast:
Many of us knew that the claims of Iraq having WMD's were bogus from the beginning (we were those unpatriotic ones in the streets with signs you may remember).
Did you see any evidence of such skepticism as you travelled with the general/troops, or were they convinced the WMD's were there?
(Same question, but different: What DID they see their mission as being, and was their any confusion/disagreement about this?)
Rick Atkinson: Yeah, that's interesting. In fact, there was almost no doubt by any senior officer that WMD would be found in Iraq. Gen. Petraeus, if I recall correctly, put the probability in the 80 to 90% range; Gen. Sinclair, his assistant division commander for support, put it at 100%. In this they were simply reflecting the overwhelming mass of intelligence and analysis that was coming out of the CIA, DIA, etc. They viewed their task as the war began as defeating the Iraqi military and providing the conditions needed for regime change, whether that involved killing Saddam or occupying Baghdad and chasing out the Baathists.
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The Hague, Netherlands:
Hi Rick,
I am an Iraqi living and working in Iraq.
I am fascinated by general David Petraus and have been following him since he made news after reaching Mosul. I was impressed by the way he fascinated the city.
Is there a chance for a documentary eminataing out of your book or perhaps a film.
Regards
Serood Agha
Rick Atkinson: Thanks. Don't know about a documentary or a film yet; the book technically isn't published until March 15, so it's a little early to think about that. Your reference to Mosul is interesting. After the subjugation of Baghdad, in late April, the 101st moved 230 miles north to Mosul and became the occupying force in northern Iraq for ten months. Their performance there, led by Petraeus, was often innovative and generally perceived to have been one of the success stories in the "post-war" period. I write about that a bit in the last section of Tuesday's installment.
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San Francisco CA:
What were the effects of the Fourth Infantry Division not being allowed to invade Iraq through Turkey? What could the 4th ID have accomplished if our diplomats would have been successful in their dealings with Turkey?
Rick Atkinson: That's an intriguing question. As you know, the 4th ID was supposed to attack from the north through Turkey. The troops remained mostly in Texas while their equipment, loaded on more than 30 ships, cut circles in the Mediterranean waiting for permission from Ankara which never arrived. Instead, the ships had to divert through the Suez Canal and on to Kuwait.
I frankly am not sure that it would have made a great deal of difference. There was a small force, the 173rd Airborne, that parachuted into the north. The forces from the south--Army and Marines--got to Baghdad so quickly, despite the problems, that it's unlikely a bigger assault out of the north would have made much difference. I think where the impact might have been felt--and there's no real way of knowing--is if a firm occupation force had been available to move into towns of the Sunni Triangle that have given so much trouble since last spring.
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arlington, va:
Ok, I have to ask you -- exactly how did you find out
that you had won the Pulitzer for An Army at Dawn?
How did you get the message when you were in Iraq?
What was going on around you at that time? How
did it feel?
Rick Atkinson: Umm. I write about this briefly in IN THE COMPANY OF SOLDIERS. I got word in a late night satellite phone call from Len Downie, executive editor of the Washington Post. I was thunderstruck, frankly: didn't know it was Pulitzer time, didn't know my book, AN ARMY AT DAWN, was a finalist, hadn't paid much attention. It was gratifying and had virtually no effect. The next morning we were off to Karbala and I watched a fairly vibrant fight to take down the city.
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Fairfax, VA:
Rick,
Ken Carlson here from USMA '66. Great stuff in your new book, as always. My question is, when will we see the next installment of the Eurpoean War trilogy?
Rick Atkinson: Hi, Ken. Nice to hear from you. I've been diverted a bit to go off with the 101st and then to write IN THE COMPANY OF SOLDIERS. But as of Christmas I got back into the research for volume 2 of the Liberation Trilogy full-time--it covers the campaigns in Sicily and Italy in '43-'44--and I'm guessing that the next volume will be out in 2007, or thereabouts. I'm having a great time picking up with all my old friends from North Africa: Patton, Eisenhower, Alexander, Montgomery, etc.
Best regards to you and the class...
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Alexandria, Va.:
During major combat, there was much skepticism about the grounds for war and about embedding journalists to cover it. Many thought that being an American reporter would only create patriotic coverage. Did you have a hard time being objective? Were there conflicts of interest between reporters and the Army?
Rick Atkinson: It's an intriguing issue, and one that is much discussed in both military and journalistic circles. My feeling is that there's a danger of being co-opted as a reporter whenever you're around a group of people you fundamentally like, whether it's covering a local city council, or the White House, or an Army division. One of the things that distinguishes good journalists from those who are less good is an ability to preserve objectivity and to write as honestly and comprehensively as possible. That doesn't mean that you don't have feelings for the people you're writing about. It broke my heart every time I heard of another soldier from the 101st being killed or badly wounded, but it redoubled my conviction that telling their story comprehensively and without sugar-coating was important. And yes, there are always conflicts of interest between reporters and the Army, because our interests are not identical. A commander's job is to accomplish his mission and take care of his soldiers; a reporter's mission is to provide as fair and accurate and complete an accounting as possible.
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college park, md:
very interesting articles and discussion; i'm curious - what are the biggest challenges of writing about war? which war journalists do you most admire, past and present? are there classic works in the genre that you look to as models and for inspiration?
thanks,
Rick Atkinson: Yes, I very much had in mind some antecedents in a genre that I've come to know well in writing about World War II, the battle-narrative genre. There are many that I admire: Ernie Pyle's BRAVE MEN; Margaret Bourke-White's PURPLE HEART VALLEY; David Rame's ROAD TO TUNIS. Alan Moorehead, A.J. Liebling, etc. Also, Michael Kelly, who died outside Baghdad last April 3, wrote a lovely little book on the Persian Gulf War called MARTYR's DAY. As for contemporaries I admire, there are many, but Jim Dwyer of the New York Times, who was my running buddy in Iraq and is a large character in IN THE COMPANY OF SOLDIERS, comes to mind, as do my Post colleagues David Maraniss, Bob Woodward, Tony Shadid, Rajiv Chandresekaran, etc., etc. The hardest thing in writing about war, in addition to the physical rigor required, is knowing that young men and women are going to die, often horribly.
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Philadelphia, PA:
I was struck how worried Petraus was when you had the private chat with him after things slowed down on Day 5 (sandstorm, ambushes, supply shortages, etc). I admit that I was one of those people that thought the news media was 'quagmiremongering' with their negative coverage at that time. The question is -- will Petraus' admission to you then (and published now) cause him problems with the Pentagon with his career? I would have picked him to be the next Chief of Staff of the Army.
Rick Atkinson: I'd like to think that candor and human feelings are seen as an asset in a general. Here's the bottom line for me, as the father of a 20-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter: is this a caring, competent commander in whose custody you would feel comfortable commiting the life of your child? The answer with Gen. Petraeus, in my judgment, is absolutely.
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Washington, D.C.:
Given Mr. Rumsfeld's treatment of senior Army officers, most notably Gen. Shinseki, are you concerned that publishing Maj. Gen. Petraeus' sometimes frank comments may have an adverse effect on his career?
Rick Atkinson: My reply is pretty well laid out in the last question. Gen. Shinseki had substantial policy differences with Secretary Rumsfeld and others at the Pentagon. I don't believe that Gen. Petraeus's comments imply any disloyalty to the policy. He was a division commander doing the best he could; his performance in Mosul for the period from April until last month should by itself earn him very high marks from the Pentagon and from the country.
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Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas:
What do you believe were the key reasons why the US military was seemingly so ill-prepared for the challenges of "post conflict" operations in Iraq? It seems impossible to believe that Petraeus and other commanders, as well as the planning staffs at CENTCOM and it components were not aware of the potential problems, yet on a variety of planes, there was no apparent planning to address them.
Rick Atkinson: I take a look at this issue in IN THE COMPANY OF SOLDIERS, and there has been some outstanding reporting on the issue, particularly by Jim Fallows in the Jan./Feb. issue of the Atlantic Monthly. I believe the piece is called "Blind Into Baghdad." In a nutshell, I think the Army in particular--and I'd include Gen. Wallace, the very competent V Corps commander--and his superiors, were so preoccupied with the tasks of deploying to the Middle East and executing a complex war plan with a minimum of forces--I lay out the Pentagon-decreed scuttling of the Army's original time-phased force deployment matrix, which caused great consternation--that they simply did not focus sufficiently on Phase IV, as the stability and support ops were called. Frankly, I lay a large measure of the responsibility not on the uniformed field commanders but on the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the White House.
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Washington, DC:
Rick,
I'm finding Gen. Petraeus to be a fascinating figure, though he seems to be portrayed as a kind of superhero in many respects. Does he have flaws? How open was he about his doubts and his shortcomings?
Rick Atkinson: Well, I certainly don't think he's depicted as a superhero. The larger and more nuanced portrait of him in the book shows him to have feet of clay like the rest of us. You find people who find his competiteness to be off-putting, and he has stepped on some toes. He's also got moments of doubt, moments of anxiety, moments of uncertainty. My intent has always been to show the full dimensions of this very human general. Having said all that, his attributes are many.
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FREDERICK, MD:
Your observation on education of officers was interesting. Maybe you could look at the enlisted, who, today, also have degrees. The military is not for the uneducated grunts. Did you have much interaction with the enlisted during your journey? How was their attitude and battle awareness?
Rick Atkinson: Oh, yes. It's quite something to see not only how many well-educated soldiers fill the enlisted ranks, but the NCO educational system is also pretty impressive. And of course many soldiers are in the Army to earn the benefits that allow them to pursue their education when they leave the service. I spent lots of time around enlisted troops, even though I was primarily at Gen. Petraeus's elbow; I loved going to the mess tent and eavesdropping or just striking up conversations to see what was on their mind.
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washingtonpost.com:
Thank you Rick for joining us online. Tomorrow's excerpts from "In the Company of Soldiers" will be available on washingtonpost.com along with an audio-photo slideshow narrated by Rick Atkinson. Information about the book is available online here.
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