What happens when a career Marine officer stops believing in the doctrine of the Corps and the official pretexts for war? In 2006, Winston Tierney deployed to Iraq’s Anbar Province with the Fourth Reconnaissance Battalion, excited and proud to serve his country in the fight against international terrorism. After several trips to Iraq over the next nine years he returned depleted by hatred, mendacity, alcohol abuse and PTSD, he felt he had “seen behind the curtain”—and didn’t like what he saw. This hard-hitting memoir depicts the brutal realities of the conflict in Iraq at street level, while giving a clear-eyed treatise on the immorality of war and the catastrophe of America’s failures in the Middle East.

Winston Tierney is a retired Marine Corps infantry officer having served 27 1/2 years in the Marine Corps.

Winston Tierney
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 193
Bibliographic Info: 12 photos, notes, index
Copyright Date: 2022
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8980-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4721-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vii
Preface 1
Introduction 5
I. The Big Letdown 13
II. Who We Were 20
III. The “Why” the COIN Experts Gave Us and Our Interpretation of It 31
IV. What We Did 45
V. What We Got for Our Efforts 118
VI. How Reinforcing Failure Looks 148
VII. Final Thought 174
Chapter Notes 179
Index 181