The Ragged Edge: A US Marine’s Account of Leading the Iraqi Army Fifth Battalion
By: Michael Zacchea, Ted Kemp / Narrated By: John Pruden
Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
A huge part of the war you just don’t hear about
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Zacchea, USMC, was deployed to Iraq in March of 2004 to build, train, and lead in combat the first Iraqi army battalion trained by the U.S. And it makes for some really good, really thought-provoking listening.
In The Ragged Edge, you’ll meet a varied and colorful assortment of Iraqi men, and you’ll get a small peek into the mindset of an Iraqi individual. These were men who joined the military mostly out of desperation for paid employment, though a few were true believers in a free and democratic society.
But Zacchea illustrates in fine prose how we threw ourselves into a hornet’s nest that’d been sizzling for eons. We actually thought we could turn another nation into a democratic and largely secular country within the span of a couple of years. This memoir shows the tragic consequences.
While it is very much a study of character and characters, it is also an account of war. You’ll find some brief yet very graphic imagery within the 13+ hours. It’s terrible what a starving dog can do to a bloated corpse…
I felt very torn and disturbed by the end of the audiobook (which, by the way, John Pruden narrates in a straightforward and reserved manner, totally adequate for the speaking style of a military man with strong emotions). You’ll see how these men were taken advantage of, how they were disrespected, how they were manipulated, all while we were expecting them to fight and die for our own ideals.
There’s a lot of sadness to be felt. But The Ragged Edge is very much an eye-opener that deserves to be listened to.
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