Read very well. Seamed well researched and gave a good insight into the strategic tactics used by special forces in general and in particularby the British in Iraq post invasion to beat the insurgency. Was not full of jargon and what was used was introduced well so that you could understand what was happening. Gives good insight into future possible operations and useful for the wargamer

While Mark Urban is a journalist, he does seem to have a talent for getting behind the headlines and really immersing himself in a story, in this case the exploits of the SAS in Iraq. He clearly spent a lot of time over there, with troops from all the Allied countries from the boys on the ground facing fire night after night to those gathering intelligence and making the tactical decisions. While he largely avoids the morality question (and quite rightly in my opinion as that would be a whole book in itself...and then some!), he does get into the tactical and practical decisions and analyses whether they were right at the time, right in hindsight and whether they made any real difference in the direction and progress of the war in Iraq. He does so with the keen eye of a journalist but of a well informed one, looking at all the angles and possibilities and even acknowledging where things didn't go to plan or didn't help matters. The writing on the whole is easy to follow, laying out the tangled mess of Iraq in relatively simple terms but it does sometimes get bogged down in the behind the scenes politics and personality clashes, which are useful to know about but could possibly have been less detailed (although on the other hand this may have been seen as white-washing...). This is certainly an interesting read, and rather enlightening too seeing how much involvement British forces really had.