Book Review: ‘Rage Company’ an insightful look at Operation Squeeze Play - Entertainment, Books - Army Times

Book Review: ‘Rage Company’ an insightful look at Operation Squeeze Play

Former 1st Lt. Thomas P. Daly omits talk about strategy until an informative timeline at the end of his report.

His story “does not provide a larger context explaining how operational and strategic-level events shaped the Awakening,” the anti-al Qaeda-in-Iraq movement led by Sheikh Sattar.

However, “Rage Company” does provide on-the-ground and sometimes insightful descriptions of the company’s year in Ramadi as part of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit during Operation Squeeze Play, “the shaping phase of the greater surge strategy.”

Daly, a religion major, goes from the University of Rochester, where he protests filmmaker Michael Moore, to Iraq, where Marines pose with former Lt. Col. Oliver North (there for Fox News).

When Marines are briefed about “the current nature of the insurgency” in November 2006, Daly sits “up straight in his chair” because “my perspective of Iraq had, to this point, been shaped by CNN, Internet surfing, some books I had read, and exaggerated war stories.”

He finds his own stories.

• New Year’s Eve in Iraq “was the first time someone had pointed a loaded rifle at me.”

• During a search, he realizes that “we, the alien invaders,” will give the Iraqi family “not security or hope; just fear and mud.”

There’s no cover-up for muddy thinking, including his.

He hears a “loud cackle of AK fire” and “for the first time, I pulled my fragmentation grenade out of its pouch.” After reviewing the situation and his conscience, “I came to realize I was reacting to a confusing situation with poor judgment.”

He recognizes others’ valor, even the other side’s. An insurgent trying to save a buddy’s life is killed by a blast from an Apache, and “desk jockeys” at the Tactical Operations Center cheer. Their laughter disgusts Daly.

“These guys [at TOC] never got shot at. It took some serious balls for that dude to stop in the street and contemplate going back for his friend. Not to mention that he carried a dying comrade to safety behind a wall. I decided the dude was as badass as it gets.”

His Marines’ displays of self-reflection at deployment’s end make him think about recognition. “Did they or anyone in the U.S. know that the capital of al Qaeda’s self-declared government had been secured by a combined force of American, Iraqi and local militia?

“I knew the answer: No.”

Now they know.