Good Soldiers: A Journalistic Ethnography - Book Report/Review Example

?Good Soldiers- A journalistic ethnography War has often been treated as an elite for those who in one way or other participated in wars. The picture of the courageous soldiers has the other self too— a human being often put to the hardships of the war. The modern war has put the soldiers in heavy hardships as the opponents can kill or injure them either with fatal weapons or in bomb blasts. Their life is not at all protected that they may hear the footsteps of death in any moment. The book, ‘The Good Soldiers’ by David Finkel takes the readers to the factual description of the U.S. surge in Post war Iraq and the plight of the American soldiers to establish peace in a place where peace at a far reach. Being a well renowned journalist of Washington Post, and having won many awards including the prestigious Pulitzer in 2006, David Finkel depicts the lives of soldiers during their attempts to bring peace among a very offensive people who offended them with modern weapons and technologies. The writer through his first book, ‘The Good Soldiers,’ published in 2009, narrates his experiences with the soldiers in Iraq. His realistic explanation of the incidents and the portraying of the soldiers who are deployed to Iraq make this novel a masterpiece. The journalistic attributes further make the book a unique kind of its sort. David Finkel, a journalist of the Washington Post elaborates the plight of 801 American soldiers in Iraq. He tries to draw out the different aspects concerning the soldiers fighting in an unknown country, thousands of kilometers away from their hometown. George Bush, the then American President, in his attempts of ensuring peace and democracy in the land of Iraq, deploys the American troops to Iraq in 2007. Being a journalist he accompanies the 2-16- Second Battalion, 16thInfantry to war fields of Bagdad, Iraq. The real purpose of this movement was to establish peace in the post war Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein. The American led democratic government was a failure in establishing peace there and so the U.S. army moved to the various parts of Iraq where the insurgents were making much havoc to the common life of the people. The sectarian antagonistic attitudes of the Iraqis towards America and to the American led government in Iraq are well pictured in the book. The writer, being a journalist and keen observer, does not spare even the very minute details regarding the state of both the soldiers and the native people. He could capture the physical and mental agony of the soldiers in the city of Sadr with minute details. Their griefs, fear, pathos, the confronted state of the people on the verge of death and so on are well shown in the novel. As the novel is based on the decision of the American President George W. Bush on the US surge to the land of Iraq, each chapter opens with the words of Bush, mostly in connection with the US-Iraq war. This is an additional feature of the book that makes it different from other novel. The writer has tried to serialize the incidents of the chapter in accordance with the initial wordings of the chapter. Apart from other novels and books on war this style appears to be unique. The journalistic skills of the writer are vivid at this method. The chronicling of the day to day affairs and incidents of the group are also the magnification of the journalistic ethnography in the book. The grim realities that are faced by the soldiers at their mission were juxtaposed by the political verbosity at their country. The novel pictures three layers of outlook towards war- soldiers, politicians, and public. The novel begins with the forming of the battalion by the Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzalrich at Fort Riley, Kansas in February 2007. The group comprised of 801 young soldiers in and around the age of 19 had to live 15 months at the scorching hot areas of Sadr city, Iraq. The novel gives a picture of the incident at the very first sentence. “His soldiers weren’t yet calling him the Lost Kauz behind his back, not when this began” (Finkel 3). This gives the reader an alarm of the following series of incidents that affected the Infantry headed by Kauzalrich. He has been later, towards the end shown as a symbol of lost actions. The writer gives the words of another soldier who was one of the best friends of the Lieutenant Colonel as, “I’ve lost all hope. I feel the end is near me, very, very near” (Finkel 3). The war had affected them very severely. The feelings of the war brought them nightmares even after their return to America. Ralph Kauzalrich had the very reasons to be selected to take charge to Iraq. The novel says, “In nineteen years as an army officer, he had never lost a soldier under his direct command” (Finkel 7). So the battalion is deployed to Iraq in the hope of establishing peace among the people in the American guided government of Iraq. The battalion was assigned to recovery action in the dusty stinky city of Sadr, which is on the eastern side of Bagdad. Here they witnessed the rage of the opponents in the form of bomb blasts, suicide attacks, and IEDs. The life of each and every soldier was at brim of death. There is no surety for life and in every new moment anything can happen. Through the chronicled details by the writer, the readers see the scattering of the bodies, dismantling of these and often without limbs. The soldiers who stood shoulder to shoulder in a moment are taken to either seriously injured or dead. The account of the incidents that happened to the family of Izzy puts an ethnographic detail of the natives in Iraq. Even the name Izzy is an assumed name for fear of the insurgents. The details of his family incidents are making the readers plunge into the pathetic conditions of the Iraqis who are denied of health care only because of Iraqis. The intervention of Major Cummings has made the provisions to look after his injured child was only an exceptional case in Iraq. The writer says that one can identify number of such luckless children in Iraq. He too is also a victim of the sectarian violence in Iraq. From the book it can be seen that a few insurgents are causing threat for the common life of the people. The 2-16 witnessed the massacre of the native Iraqi family in the factory. All members of the family were charred to death as they believed the words of the army. The army’s base at the factory along with the family of the Iraqi were scattered in the attack. The battalion’s attempts to make peace in the post war Iraq had become a thorough failure. The sectarian violence that affected the country prevents America and the allies to establish peace and democracy even though with military might. The insurgents are working up all nights and on deadly blasts and they use any measure to keep the soldiers away from the land. The book details the 15 month longer plight of the soldiers of 2/16 battalion in the stinky conditions of Sadr city. The period of the battalion in Iraq caused for the death of 15 and injured 75. The soldiers who had survived all these had shown the traits of psychological break down. The 15 months of their life in Iraq had made them gloomy and melancholic. The writer says, “Well, here are the differences” George W. Bush had said on January 10, 2007. Fifteen months later to the day, the differences were done” (Finkel 273). The Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzalrich believes that they have won and the book says in the same page, “They had won, he was sure of it. They were the difference. It was all good. But he had seen through.” The book analyses the condition of the soldiers who are deployed to Iraq. The book has its drawbacks too. The gory details of death and tragedies make the soldiers and others think that it was a major causality. In considering the other war periods this causality is very mild. The projection of tragedies, grief, gloominess, etc., makes this book consider that soldiers have only tragedies. The noble duty of the soldiers is not much mentioned in the book. The victories, even small and other happy moments are not highlighted at all. But these are very few in the life of the soldiers. To sum up it can be said that the merits of this book are hiked at such a height that the demerits have become insignificant and rather invisible. Conclusions The book, The Good Soldiers is ranked with the war novels of Earnest Heming Way. It gets the popularity of the earlier war writers and it shows the new realm of the condition of the soldiers. The meaninglessness or futility of war has been shadowed all through the book. An Introspective look into the need of the war in Iraq is also undercurrent in the book. The answer for the need of US surge in Iraq is clearly given by the book as all the soldiers raging against the decision of the authority. What America has wished in Iraq, could not be achieved by its force. The book gives the true picture of the US surge which many journalists were not daring enough to publish. The political wordings of the authority have often made shifted away from the real issues of the soldiers. This work is the factualist description of the soldiers who were in 2/16 battalion that was deployed to Iraq as with the decision of the American President, George W. Bush. The writer says in the end of the book, as “Most of this book is based on events I personally observed between January 2007, when I first met the 2-16, and June 2008, the month of the Ranger Ball” (Finkel 285). Further he speaks that he had spent eight months with the troops in Iraq and had made additional trips to the different hospitals where the injured soldiers were admitted. He had verified “the instances, details, descriptions, and dialogues in the book, through internal army reports, photographs, videos, after the fact observation, and interviews with as many participants as conditions would permit” (Finkel 285). The real life depiction of the soldiers on one side and the true condition of the native Iraqis on the other side have made this book a study on ethnography of Americans and Iraqis. This book cannot be called a pure novel as it lacks the fanciful writing; but this book is a journalistic novel with unique narrative style. The book seems to be a video presentation of the situations that happened in Iraq. The pictorial descriptions add essence to the quality of the book. David Finkel could make use of his journalistic skills in the book. The book set in dated wise and the different style of narration of the incidents, the chapter wise quotations in connection with the US surge in Iraq and the true descriptions of the incidents without going away from the reality, make this book a masterpiece of the time. Works cited Finkel, David. The Good Soldiers. Illustrated Edn. Atlantic Books, 2011. Print. Read More