Red Zone Baghdad

It is always rewarding to read a book that opens one's eyes to complex events in Australia's history that were previously only dimly understood.  Red Zone Bagdad by Colonel Marcus Fielding is one such work. It recounts the author's nine-month tour of duty in Baghdad during final stages of the Iraq War (2003-2009), where he served as a senior planning officer within the headquarters of the Multi-National Force-Iraq.

For many Australians, the Iraq War remains clouded by controversy---the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, the foreign intervention that plunged Iraq into a bloody civil war, and Al-Qaeda's abhorrent use of women and children as suicide bombers. Yet, in reading Fielding's book, one gains a more balanced perspective on the Coalition of the Willing's involvement: the necessity of removing Saddam Hussein regime, defeating the Iraqi army, and disbanding the Ba'ath party to give the Iraqi people a fragile but genuine chance at representative government, peace, and prosperity.

This is not a book about combat missions or battlefield heroics. Rather, it deals with the more difficult and often frustrating task of winning the peace---long days spent in front of a computer screen in a vast, window-boarded headquarters, planning and solving intricate logistical problems in response to directives from the General Staff. 

Red Zone Baghdad is extremely well-written and engaging. Fielding reflects honestly on Australia's contribution to the peace-keeping effort, the personal toll on service members and their families, and the time that they will never get back.

Above all, this book stands as a fitting tribute to the 20,000 Australian Defence Force personnel who served with professionalism and dedication, making a tangible contribution to Iraq's rehabilitation and reconstruction. I highly recommend this book to any reader interested in modern Australian history.