Serious students of the Persian Gulf war will have already read several prominent books which address the topic as a whole or in part. "The General's War" provides facinating "inner-sanctum" information and points of view, which are not available elsewhere. It's most prominent deficiency is a deliberate slant (bias?) to more-positively present and promote the performance of the Marine Corps vis-a-vie the other military services without apparent justification.... Overall, a very good book. As one who was there, I enjoyed the book

The General's War is an excellent account of the planning and implementation of the Gulf War. In short, it shows why the United States is a great nation. One of the main reasons we were so successful was because we DID argue on how to fight this war. Both the Military and Washington worked together to come up w/ the best possible plan. No war is ever conducted perfectly, but the Gulf War comes pretty close. Don't forget...it is the men and women who fought the war that won it, but the planning phases were crucial to putting our soldiers in the position to win. A little luck in some area never hurts as well. The best part of tis book is that it questions specific decisions from the war. This critcal analysis not only brings awareness, but helps our military and polititians plan future military operations.

Don't forget to read "Bravo Two Zero" about the British SAS in the Gulf. Great book!

Bernard Trainor presents two key arguments in this book that are worthy of consideration. One is that the USMC learned early on in the battle for Kafji that the Iraqi army was a house of cards, but Gen. Swartzkopf either ignored or missed that message and in any event never got the word to VII Corp commander Gen. Franks to position his troops for a battle of pursuit. As a result a large portion of the Republican guard were able to escape the VII Corp left hook. The second key argument in this book is that Colin Powell the author of the so-called "Weinburger Doctrine" which argued for the use of US forces only when victory is assured and when backed by the will of the American people, urged George Bush to call a premature end to the war which allowed the Republican Guard to participate in crushing the Shi'ite rebellion occuring within earshot of US troops. Trainor is sometimes a little too critical of decisions made in the heat of battle and far too USMC-centric but he is an outstanding student of war. I highly reccommend this book.