The Warriors of Anbar: The Marines Who Crushed Al Qaeda--the Greatest Untold Story of the Iraq War

by Ed Darack, James E. Donnellan USMC (Ret.) (Foreword by)

Overview

A riveting, edge-of-your seat account of how a battalion of Marines faced off against the most brutal of Al Qaeda at its most desperate and vicious moment—and how the Marines decisively crushed the terrorists





When the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment ("2/3") arrived in the little-known "Haditha Triad" region of western Iraq's Al Anbar Province in September of 2006, the region exploded in a storm of terrorist violence. The most battle-hardened of Al Qaeda had fled to the Triad, and, taking their last, desperate gasps for survival after years of bloody war, lashed out at the battalion with everything they could muster. The Marines sent into this firestorm of violence immediately lunged into a complex, double-edged mission: crush Al Qaeda and help the locals rebuild their terrorist-smashed lives and homes. After months of grueling, fearsome battle—and the loss of twenty-three of their ranks—the warriors of 2/3 stood tall in victory. This is their incredible story.





Warriors of Anbar is one of the greatest untold stories of modern war, one of grit, incredible courage, and utmost sacrifice. It is a story that illustrates the U.S. Marine Corps at its very finest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306922657
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,065,913
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ed Darack is the author of six previous books, including the critically acclaimed Victory Point about Operations Red Wings and Whalers, and The Final Mission of Extortion 17, the story behind the single deadliest day for US troops in the War in Afghanistan. He has embedded with US forces four times in Afghanistan and twice in Iraq, where he did the field work for Warriors of Anbar. Darack is the author of hundreds of feature articles on a broad spectrum of topics for publications including the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Smithsonian's Air & Space (where he's a contributing editor), Leatherneck, Marine Corps Gazette, Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, Foreign Policy, Weatherwise (where he's a contributing editor), and many others.

Table of Contents

Foreword Colonel James E. Donnellan, USMC (Ret.) vii

Introduction: The Toughest, Most Brutal Fight 1

Prologue: Against an Army of Phantoms on a Battlefield of Shadows 5

1 Swirling Winds 9

2 Toward the Battle Handover 21

3 The Exploding Storm 33

4 Over Before It Even Really Began? 41

5 Brothers of the Fight 51

6 The Everyday Fight 61

7 AO on Fire 73

8 Fly Like a Winged Bat Monkey from Hell 79

9 "Drill"ing Snipers with a Shotgun 87

10 Whiskey's Opening Fight 93

11 Mirrors of Trust and Deceit 103

12 COIN and the Jump Command Post 111

13 Glimmers and Darkness 119

14 The Intimacy of It All 129

15 A Haven of Scum and Villainy 133

16 A Breeze of Change 141

17 Nature of the Fight 149

18 Life, Death 159

19 River City 167

20 Dynamic AO 171

21 To the Breaking Point 177

22 Shifting Winds of Perseverance and Strength 183

23 Christmas 189

24 At War with a Spreadsheet and a Map 201

25 Flare-ups of Tragedy Amid a Dying Firestorm 209

26 COIN Culmination and a Caravan 213

27 Colors and Crying 221

Epilogue: Legacy 227

Sources 231

Index 235

Maps

Central Command (CENTCOM) 11

Iraq Regional 12

Euphrates River Corridor 13

Haditha Triad 27

Battalion Structure and Command Hierarchy 28

Editorial Reviews

08/26/2019

To create this somewhat technical account, journalist Darack embedded with the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment, known as the 2/3, during its hellish 2006 stint in the Haditha Triad region of western Iraq. As he explains, by 2006, al-Qaeda in Iraq had been defeated in Fallujah and Ramadi and had fallen back to a long-held sanctuary in the Triad. At the beginning of each chapter, Darack introduces an individual Marine as he heads out on patrol. It soon becomes clear that many of these soldiers are destined to die: by the time the 2/3 departed Iraq, it had lost 28 members, the most deaths suffered by a Marine Corps battalion since the 1983 Beirut bombings. The commanders on the scene not only clashed with the enemy but also had to overcome complications and restrictions from higher command. Darack succeeds in putting together a coherent military history of a crucial conflict with al-Qaeda, passing along important lessons learned by commanders on the ground and describing the horrors faced by the individual soldiers. Students of military history and military servicemembers looking for lessons in asymmetrical warfare will find this account illuminating and informative, but general readers may be less enthralled. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Darack succeeds in putting together a coherent military history of a crucial conflict with al-Qaeda, passing along important lessons learned....Students of military history and military servicemembers looking for lessons in asymmetrical warfare will find this account illuminating and informative."—Publishers Weekly

"The Warriors of Anbar is a classic story of perseverance, deceit, frustration, ambition, loss and the search for meaning. By laying bare the tough truths, Ed Darack details how it really was in Iraq. Every time the battalion was hit, someone found a way to strike back. These thousand Marines refused to quit or to strike out in blind anger. Even when some at the top failed, the battalion improvised, absorbed punishment, adapted from beatings and hammered forward by unexpected means. This is a classic story of grit, loss and redemption."—Bing West, former assistant secretary of defense, and an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author

"Ed Darack earned the right to tell this riveting tale the hard way, by embedding with the Marines. The Warriors of Anbar puts you right in the middle of one of the toughest, bloodiest and most vicious fights of the Iraq war."—Sean Naylor, New York Times bestselling author of Relentless Strike and award-winning reporter for Foreign Policy

"The Warriors of Anbar is one of those intimate stories that is often lost when the sacrifices of the military are overshadowed by bad decisions and politics. Ed Darack skillfully reports the story of everyday Marines trying to complete an impossible mission."—Kevin Maurer, award-winning journalist and the bestselling co-author of No Easy Day

"From his two previous books, Victory Point to The Final Mission of Extortion 17, Ed Darack has emerged as one the best, and most meticulous, reporters about the military in the country. Anything he writes is a must read."—R.M. Schneiderman, former deputy editor of Newsweek

"One of the U.S. Marine Corps' finest-yet largely untold-stories.... A very human story of 'bravery, sacrifice, incredible hardship, horror, and ultimate victory.'"—Kirkus Reviews

"The 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment deployed to an area of Al Anbar province called the Haditha Triad in September 2006 amid a surge in violence by the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Their mission was to defeat the terrorists and rebuild civil government with a functioning native police force capable of defending the population so normal life and commerce could resume. Darack... is a longtime embedded journalist with firsthand knowledge of the counterinsurgency campaign (COIN) in Haditha at this time, who also interviewed dozens of the battalion's officers and enlisted members. He has nothing but the highest praise for these Marines and their professionalism, humanity, empathy, efficiency, and willingness to sacrifice for the civilians of Haditha to achieve what he describes as a decisive victory over AQI. His account is a well-written, keenly detailed success story and a significant tribute to the Marines who risked their lives, including the 23 fallen and the hundreds who were wounded in action, to bring peace and stability to the Haditha Triad."—Booklist

"The Warriors of Anbar is a story of unmatched bravery and sacrifices and horrors which led to America's victory against AQI...This informed account of America's recent military history is meticulously researched and beautifully written. Ed Darack is veritably a superb military historian...The Warriors of Anbar is as engrossing as a war novel can be, although it is a true and scholarly story. Both students and experts of war on terror will find it full of new insights and perspectives."

—TheWashington Book Review

From the Publisher

2019-09-15
One of the U.S. Marine Corps' finest—yet largely untold—stories.

By the fall of 2006, al-Qaida in Iraq had been largely cornered in the western province known as Al Anbar. However, as veteran military writer Darack (War Moments: Images & Stories of Combat in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Beyond, 2019, etc.) writes, they were battle-hardened, well-equipped, vicious, and desperate, and they decided to dig in and throw everything they had at the "invading" Americans. They embedded themselves among the narrow, twisting streets of Haditha (population 25,000) and intimidated the locals into cooperating by murdering anyone they thought supported America. They would place their decapitated victims' heads on stakes that they planted around the city for the public to see. As one lance corporal recalled, "it wasn't hell…it was worse than hell. I know it sounds cliché, but nothing could be that bad. It was beyond my worst, most horrific nightmares." Striking and withdrawing over and over, they also set mines on the roads on which Marine convoys traveled. It was against this background that the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment arrived with orders to drive out the terrorists, a monumental, highly dangerous task. The author, who has embedded with American troops multiple times in both Afghanistan and Iraq, tells the story battle by battle, often in gripping, brutal, and sometimes-gruesome detail. However, this book is more than a typical war story. To defeat al-Qaida in Iraq, the Marines realized they would have to win the locals' trust, which they did in imaginative ways. For example, on Halloween, soldiers went trick-or-treating through Haditha neighborhoods and gave candy to children. The only real weakness of the text is Darack's excessive use of Marine acronyms (TTP, AO, COC, BATS, SVBIED, etc.), which will become tiresome for civilian readers without a military background.

A very human story of "bravery, sacrifice, incredible hardship, horror, and ultimate victory."

Kirkus Reviews