The Good Soldiers

It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences, he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Reporter David Finkel was with them in Baghdad, and almost every gruelling step of the way. What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the frontline. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, Finkel has also produced an eternal tale - not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.