Three Tour Iraq War Veteran Colonel Darron Wright's Vivid Narrative "Iraq Full Circle" Details Firsthand Account and Analysis from the Front Lines

NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- For Darron Wright, a three tour veteran of the Iraq War, America's eight-year campaign to liberate Iraq was a good war fought well. In his new book, Iraq Full Circle: From Shock and Awe to the Last Combat Patrol in Baghdad and Beyond he offers a first-hand analysis of the war.

Wright was battalion operations officer for an infantry battalion from 2003-2004 operating in the dangerous Sunni Triangle. In 2005-6 he did a tour as a Brigade Executive Officer in Baghdad.  In August 2010, Wright, as a Deputy Brigade Commander, was among the last combat soldiers to leave Iraq. He witnessed the evolution of the war from 'shock and awe' to the transition to counterinsurgency, followed by the handover of security operations to the Iraqi Security Forces.

While he does not hesitate to criticize the political and military leadership that failed to foresee the insurgency, or the errors in judgment that led to the dismantling of the Iraqi Army in 2003, his overall assessment of the war is that the US Army achieved what it was asked to do by two Presidents.

Calling upon his experience—and the examination of thousands of after action reports, combat operations orders, and over 100 interviews of Iraq War veterans—Wright pieces together a compelling and cohesive narrative of the war. Readers will be surprised to learn:

• Wright had a strong hunch beginning in September 2001 that he would be deployed to Iraq; he and his fellow Army leaders began preparing for an invasion soon after the 9/11 attacks.
• Army leaders were already implementing much of the COIN doctrine in 2004 and 2005, well before the official change in doctrine and the publication of the new field manual on COIN.
• For Wright and most other leaders at his level, President Bush's troop "surge" in November 2006 was completely uncontroversial and utterly inevitable. They knew that clear-hold-build was the right strategy and would work but that they did not have enough troops to make it stick.

In his closing chapters, Wright discusses the growth and evolution of the Iraqi Security Forces, from an abjectly corrupt and militarily useless cohort in 2004 to a well-trained and stable entity capable of securing Iraq and providing for (mostly) safe and open national elections in 2010. He finishes his narrative with his thoughts on the future of Iraq, understanding that sectarian divisions persist, but that the Iraqi Security Forces have been well-trained by the US Army to secure Iraq's future.

Colonel Darron L. Wright has served in the U.S. Army for 26 years. He earned his Master's degree in Strategic Studies and National Security Decision Making from the Naval War College.

Contact: John Tintera: (718) 433-4402 or (980) 265-6148 / [email protected]

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SOURCE Osprey Publishing