Tucker, Mike

PERSONAL:

Education: James Madison University, B.A., M.A.

CAREER:

News correspondent. Visiting scholar on counterterrorism, James Madison University, 2006. Military service: U.S. Marine infantry, special operations.

WRITINGS:

The Long Patrol: With Karen Guerrillas in Burma, Asia Books (Bangkok, Thailand), 2003.

Hell Is Over: Voices of the Kurds after Saddam, Lyons Press (Guilford, CT), 2004.

Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops, and Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah, Lyons Press (Guilford, CT), 2005.

Ronin: A Marine Scout/Sniper Platoon in Iraq, Stackpole Books (Mechanicsburg, PA), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mike Tucker earned his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he was a visiting scholar on terrorism in 2006. He joined the U.S. Marines infantry and served in special operations. As a reporter, he has covered stories about guerrilla warfare, war crimes, and terrorism in war zones and dangerous areas around the world, including Thailand, Burma, Spain, and Iraq. Tucker has traveled extensively in Iraqi Kurdistan and was one of five hundred journalists embedded with U.S. Army infantry paratroopers and special forces commandos in northern and western Iraq, where he stayed for more than a year.

In 2003, Tucker traveled in Iraqi Kurdistan, interviewing many Kurds in a variety of settings. The result of this journey is his book Hell Is Over: Voices of the Kurds after Saddam. Among the people he interviewed were peshmerga fighters—the armed Kurdish militia—, Kurdish politicians, and Kurdish nationals who were political prisoners during Saddam Hussein's rule over Kurdish Iraq, when the treatment of the Kurds was especially harsh. The interviewees recount many events, including life under the Ba'athist regime, massacres of Kurdish subjects, and the armed resistance that grew under Saddam's murderous tactics. Tucker has great sympathy for the Kurds, especially since he believes they were betrayed by the U.S. government when they turned to it for promised help. In Hell Is Over, Turner suggests that the United States will succeed in Iraq War only if the Kurds are given recognition and allowed the opportunity to represent their honor and their culture as participants in the rebuilding of Iraq.

Reviewers had mixed reactions to Hell Is Over. A Publishers Weekly critic declared, "This book will find a place among emerging Saddam-era testimonies." Middle East Quarterly contributor Michael Rubin stated that Tucker was carried away by emotion, and commented that he "surrenders balance and accuracy to his own romanticism."

Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops, and Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah is a narrative describing Tucker's time as an embedded journalist with coalition forces in Iraq during 2003 and 2004. His units, the warriors of the 101st Airborne Division, and the 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions, were posted in Mosul and Fallujah, respectively, two areas where the insurgency was at its strongest. Tucker followed the soldiers as they engaged in urban combat against snipers and guerrillas. In the book, he describes the raids in which they participated and attacks they encountered. He quotes conversations with the men, providing a sympathetic, realistic, firsthand account of their boredom, confusion, fear, and bravery. Tucker speaks knowledgeably about the weapons the soldiers used and the strain of their experiences. He also conveys the strained atmosphere of the urban setting, including how it feels to be under fire by unseen assailants, and the uncomfortable awareness that civilians, including children, are never far away.

Critics found Among Warriors in Iraq to be intriguing, personal, and an important contribution to understanding the Iraq War. Rubin, in another contribution to Middle East Quarterly, stated that Among Warriors in Iraq "has wide appeal," and that it is "worthwhile to understand the risks U.S. soldiers take and the contributions they make on a daily basis." In a review for Booklist, Roland Green called the book "hardboiled and absorbing" and commented that it "presents a perspective not often [portrayed] in the general media." A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book "a harrowing journey into the heart of the Iraqi insurgency," and added that it is "personal and edgy." Raymond Puffer, in his review of Among Warriors in Iraq for Kliatt stated that "Tucker is skillful at catching the enormously varied personalities of his soldiers and the bonds that sustain them." Puffer also appreciated how Tucker highlighted "the ordinary heroics of ordinary young Americans."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2005, Roland Green, review of Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops, and Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah, p. 1563.

Kliatt, November 1, 2005, Raymond Puffer, review of Among Warriors in Iraq, p. 33.

Middle East Quarterly, June 22, 2005, Michael Rubin, review of Hell Is Over: Voices of the Kurds after Saddam, p. 92; March 22, 2006, Rubin, review of Among Warriors in Iraq, p. 73.

Publishers Weekly, November 1, 2004, review of Hell Is Over, p. 58; April 4, 2005, review of Among Warriors in Iraq, p. 55.

Reference & Research Book News, May 1, 2005, review of Hell Is Over, p. 48; August 1, 2005, review of Among Warriors in Iraq, p. 46.

ONLINE

Globe Pequot Press Web site,http://www.globepequot.com/ (August 1, 2008), synopsis of Among Warriors in Iraq and short author profile.

Stackpole Books,http://www.stackpolebooks.com/ (August 1, 2008), synopsis of Ronin: A Marine Scout/Sniper Platoon in Iraq and short author profile.