Having read the very powerful, The Good Soldiers, and having already seen the author's documentary film, Restrepo, I expected to enjoy this book, but not be overly impressed. I was wrong. The book is much more interesting than Restrepo. Plus, the book is a perfect companion piece to the raw emotion of The Good Soldiers. The author is very perceptive about what he observes of modern American combat soldiers fighting in Muslim countries today. While he narrates the same highly dangerous and stimulating combat situations as those in the The Good Soldiers, he also provides facinating and useful commentary about the individual soldier-level activity.