STORM ON THE HORIZON: Khafji—The Battle That Changed the Course of the Gulf War

In late January 1991, during the Gulf War, the Saudi Arabian coastal city of Khafji and several U.S. Marine outposts stretching inland were overrun by a three-division Iraqi ground attack. Confusion about the strength of the enemy attack led to Marines being trapped in the city itself; confusion in communications and about location led to several "friendly fire" fratricides. The U.S.-led coalition positions and Khafji itself were eventually retaken by U.S.–supported Saudi National Guard counterattacks that proved the Saudis had a good deal to learn. So did the Marines, Morris shows, particularly about air-ground cooperation, but they also learned the serious weaknesses of the vaunted Iraqi forces (which may have influenced coalition strategy later). The real strength of the book, however, is not in its strategic analyses but in the portraits of the men on the ground, few of them above the rank of captain, derived from exhaustive interviewing by the author, a former Marine officer. Morris conveys how the fog (and smoke, dust and sand) of war looks to the people in it, while clarifying the situations for the reader, not something that most military histories manage. Many of the men were almost as isolated as in pre-radio days, but Morris shows their training to have kicked in purposefully. (Feb. 3)