Phillip Carter
Zucchino paints a vivid picture of the battle by stitching together the narratives of soldiers, officers, generals and Iraqis whom he interviewed during and after the war. As a result, his book goes far beyond the "first draft of history" that he filed from Baghdad in April 2003.
— The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Even a very short, victorious shooting war against a disorganized, dispirited, vastly outnumbered and underequipped enemy is hell. That is the central message that Los Angeles Times correspondent Zucchino brings home startlingly well in this riveting account of the American military's lightning capture of Baghdad in April 2003. Zucchino (The Myth of the Welfare Queen) is an experienced, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, and he shows off his reportorial skills in this reconstruction of the "lightning armored strike" in Iraq that the military refers to as a "thunder run." The narrative focuses on the men who commanded and battled in the tank battles as the Americans fought their way to Iraq's capital city. It is often not a pretty picture, nor one for the faint of heart, because Zucchino unhesitatingly and graphically describes the violent and grisly fates that befell hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqi Republican Guard troops and fedayeen militiamen, their Syrian allies (at the border) and the unfortunate civilians who were killed or wounded by the deadly high-tech American armored vehicles and their well-trained crews. He also does not shy away from intimately describing the deaths and injuries of American troops. The Americans who fought their way into Baghdad engaged in, according to Zucchino's account, a vicious, if short-lived, war. While the Americans overwhelmed the Iraqis on the road to Baghdad, U.S. troops faced periodic stiff resistance; rocket-propelled grenades caused death and destruction among the crews in the Bradley fighting vehicles. Zucchino tells his story primarily from the American troops' point of view, but does include a section describing the experiences of a Baath Party militia leader and some Republican Guard officers in this high-quality example of in-depth and evocative war reporting. First serial to Men's Journal. Agent, Angela Brophy for Sterling Lord Literistic. (May 18) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
A journalist's-eye view of the brigade that led the assault on Baghdad. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
APR/MAY 05 - AudioFile
Current events in Iraq have, unfortunately, clouded the truly remarkable achievement of the United States military in the campaign that ousted thug Saddam Hussein from power in Spring 2003. On April 5 and 7, armored elements of the 3rd Infantry Division made bold strikes into the heart of Baghdad, occupying a number of buildings and sites associated with the Iraqi government and the ruling Baath Party. It was a bloody affair and is largely unknown to the general public. Zucchino, who was Mark Bowden's (BLACK HAWK DOWN) editor at THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, makes the listener not merely an observer, but a participant in the action. This account of the horror and heroism of war is ably performed by Richard M. Davisdon. His voice is steady and calm, and adroitly gives life to both narrative and dialogue. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
