The Midnight Hour

My review of Richard Engel’s book was published earlier this month in the New York Post, but very heavily edited for length. Below is the full version.

“I have found that no matter how war-torn a country becomes, liquor, Marlboros, prostitutes, guns and pornography are never in short supply.” So writes NBC News’ senior Middle East correspondent Richard Engel in his new memoir, War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq.

And perhaps the most telling attribute of Engel’s account of covering the Iraq war is that it is unashamedly real. As a former Marine officer who spent seven months in Iraq in 2006 I identified with many of his stories. I laughed, winced, choked-up and became angry as he told story after story that sometimes closely reflected my own experiences. “I liked the jargon,” Engel admits, “cursing, bad coffee in the TOC, and all the macho brotherhood. I was happy to be back out with the Marines. There was no spin, bullshit or talking points, just business.”

Engel shares his own evolving emotions and psychological state at each stage of the conflict. Divorce, feeling detached, identifying the war as “home,” anger, apathy, and changing states of mind over the course of a deployment are all things I observed in others or experienced first-hand. It is actually uncanny how closely Engel’s psychological state parallels that of many combat veterans. Describing his feelings during his third year in Iraq Engel writes, “I was jittery, cold, wired, hungry, and most of all detached.”

Engel also offers an uncensored look at the Iraqi population that doesn’t often make the evening news, through his exploits with local Iraqi members of the NBC bureau in the Red Zone of Baghdad. He provides intriguing background on the struggles of his Iraqi associates Ali, Zohair, and Ashraf. ”Zohair didn’t support Saddam and doesn’t want an Islamic regime.” Engel recounts. “Zohair doesn’t want to die fighting for Iraq’s honor and dignity…He wants to buy a house. His young attractive wife…wants a baby and has been struggling to get pregnant.”

“Out of the Humvee’s left window, I saw the mutilated body of an Iraqi man who’d been bound, executed, run over by a tank, and picked at by a dog chewing organs out of his anus,” Engel reports. Kidnappings, suicide bombings, murders, beheadings and other acts of violence are all recounted in graphic detail. But Engel’s intent is not really to shock or entertain the reader with gruesome mental images, but instead to describe the monumental costs of war.

Engel addresses public misconceptions about reporting from Iraq, specifically focusing on the accusation that reporters intentionally ignore positive stories. Engel essentially claims that he objectively reported whatever relevant stories he uncovered. But he’s also trying to play both sides of the argument, since in June 2005 he told Marine Colonel Stephen Davis “I hope we’re not out here to watch Marines hand out soccer balls and lollipops.”

This book is not aimed at convincing you of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the war, though Engel has his own opinion. He reveals it candidly in a few places. “The invasion of Iraq was always a war of opportunity,” he claims, “a preemptive strike that was only possible because the American people were so angry and scared by the atrocities of 9/11 that they gave President Bush carte blanche to punish anyone remotely responsible.”

He is a harsh critic of U.S. motivations for the war, but he also clearly presents evidence of al Qaeda operating in Iraq as early as 2002 and recounts personally witnessing foreign terrorists training in Iraq that same year. “Saddam embraced al-Qaeda-style foreign fighters and even set up training camps for them near Baghdad. I know this because I saw the fighters.”

While he is critical of President Bush’s handling of the war, writing that he “had no idea how to deal with Arabs.” Engel also describes Bush as having “earned two Ph.D.’s worth of information about the country and the Middle East.” and praises him for speaking in “decisive, short, muscular sentences with engaging confidence.”

Fluent in Arabic, Engel is exceptionally informed on the various political, cultural and religious forces that continue to shape Iraq. He explores Iranian influence on the Iraqi democratic process that can only be described as disturbing. Speaking of the January 2005 Iraqi elections Engel writes, “Iran helped choose the 169 list, approving the candidates and the order in which they appeared on the ballot.” Highlighting the unique challenges of uniting a country with numerous competing sectarian conflicts Engel sums the situation, “Iraqi officials, clerics, militia groups, Syria, Iran, and al-Qaeda were all struggling and dying to get a job done in Iraq, it just wasn’t the same job the White House wanted them to be doing.”

“War Journal” is a must-read for anyone desiring a more complete knowledge of the war in Iraq. Weaving together parts of personal memoirs, history lessons, informative anecdotes and shocking details of atrocities, Engel succeeds in telling his story — and it is a valuable story to tell.