Review Gary Livingston, An Nasiriyah, The Fight for the Bridges, Caisson Press, 2003

Livingston, Gary, An Nasiriyah, The Fight for the Bridges, Caisson Press, 2003

 

Gary Livingston’s An Nasiriya, The Fight for the Bridges is a combat history of the battle for two bridges in the city of Nasiriya during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The author wanted to valorize the Marines and gives a very in depth narrative of all the fighting that took place. In the process he skips over many of the mistakes and problems that were made.

 

In his Forward Livingston criticized liberals and leftists who did not support the Iraq War. In response he wrote this book to talk about the heroism of the Marines who fought in Nasiriya. That leads him to focuses upon the individual Marines and their units and what they did during the battle. The emphasis upon the combat means he misses much of the larger picture.

 

For instance, the author lays out the plan to take the bridges in Nasiriya but doesn’t talk about the consequences of it not being followed. There were three companies in Task Force Tarawa that were tasked with seizing two bridges in the city which were needed so the Americans could reach Baghdad. The plan was not followed because the Marines found a lost army company in the city. The Marine general ordered his men to rescue them and take the bridges. The companies did not go in the order they were supposed to leading to chaos. The first took a wrong turn and got bogged down in a mudflat. The three units became isolated as a result. Because the book was centered on the fighting prowess of the Marines the consequences of not following the strategy is never discussed.

 

Another major issue was that the communication system did not work for most of the battle. The high buildings and power lines disrupted the radio signals. Even when they worked so many people were on at the same time many could never pass along important information. Livingston only makes passing reference to that.

 

The last issue is that the closing chapters are about supporting units that either passed through Nasiriya or were on the perimeter. Those seem superfluous and could have been dropped.

 

That does not mean that An Nasiriya does not have its merits. For a combat history it is very good. Livingston does a good job individualizing the Marines talking about their background and families instead of just dealing with their units. It also captures how intense the fighting was in Nasiriya which was the toughest battle during the entire invasion. Most of the Iraqi soldiers took off their uniforms to mix in with the civilian population making it hard to tell who to shoot at. There were also three separate militias operating in Nasiriya who did not have uniforms to begin with. Many civilians were killed in the process sometimes by mistake sometimes on purpose such as when a mother and child were being used as a decoy so a Marine shot her. The book captures how chaotic the situation was.

 

An Nasiriya is a good read for the fighting in 2003 to seize the Nasiriya bridges despite its flaws. It misses the larger picture of what happened during the battle because it was explicitly written to focus upon the bravery of the Marines. That being said the depiction of the events was quite good. You get a real feel of what the marines went through and the confusion of combat.

 

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