FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“This is a terrific and illuminating piece of writing, one of the best things to come out of the Iraq war. It reads to me like a history of the conflict as it would be told by a smart American platoon leader. It should be in the rucksack of every soldier heading to Iraq, and also should be read by anyone who cares about this war. If you want to support our troops, buy it right now.”
Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

THE DEFENSE OF JISR AL-DOREAA
With E. D. Swinton’s The Defence of Duffer’s Drift

Michael L. Burgoyne and Albert J. Marckwardt
With a Foreword by John A. Nagl

Ever since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, the nightly news has offered accounts of troops fighting a lethal and adaptive insurgency, where the divisions between enemy and ally are ambiguous at best, and where working with the local population is essential for day-to-day survival. But what does this mean for soldiers on the ground? And how can troops facing deployment quickly adapt to such a hostile environment?

From the lessons they learned during multiple tours of duty in Iraq, two American veterans of the war have written a tactical primer based on the military classic The Defence of Duffer’s Drift. Over the course of six dreams, a young officer deployed for the first time in Iraq fights the same battle again and again, learning each time—the hard way—which misconceptions he needs to discard and which lessons he must learn to defeat a dangerous enemy and achieve a lasting victory.

Accompanied by the Boer War-era novella that inspired it, The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa offers an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand how the United States plans to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The authors are donating their royalties for this book to the Fisher House Foundation, a private-public partnership that supports the families of America’s injured servicemen. To learn more about the Fisher House Foundation, visit www.fisherhouse.org.

Michael L. Burgoyne is a captain in the United States Army who was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and 2005. He has also served as an instructor at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. Albert J. Marckwardt also a captain in the United States Army, served in Iraq in 2005 and 2007. He now serves as aide-de-camp to the Commanding General, Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

 

The authors are available for interviews. For more information, please contact Lindsay Dawson at (773) 702-1964 or ldawson@press.uchicago.edu

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