Adjust Fire: Transforming to Win in Iraq

1. Sees the origins of the Iraq War in mistakes of the earliest counterinsurgent years. 2. Illustrates U.S. military commanders struggling to meet political goals of the Bush Administration. 3. Examines how counterinsurgent warfare in Iraq has forced the Army to transform. 4. Gives background to tactical and political decisions occurring in Iraq right now. 5. Answers the burning political question about the war in Iraq: What now? 6. Addresses leadership, culture, training, honor and emotional hardships of soldiers. 7. Helps lay readers understand what it's like to be in a military commander's boots. 8. Makes the military world comprehensible and the war in Iraq less convoluted. 9. Answers questions politicians and pundits are unable to provide the American electorate. 10. Helps reader see inside the Army to better understand the complexity and difficulty of this war. 11. Shows how bottom-up democratic process has the best chance for success in Iraq. 12. Shows how and why Gen. Petraeus has begun to turn the tide in favor of the U.S. 13. Provides clear cut examples of how the Army can change its methods to realize a more capable force. 14. Provides roadmap against terrorist-based conflicts that loom ahead in the future

Michael A. Baumann is a 1985 Distinguished Military Graduate of the University of Minnesota Army ROTC program. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and a M.S. in Education Administration from Texas A&M University. He served twenty years on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army holding numerous command and staff positions in field artillery and infantry units. In Iraq he commanded 1-21 Field Artillery, 5th Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division, in combat operating in the Al Rashid district of Baghdad. Today he works as the Financial Controller for Saint Paul Public Schools and resides in Lakeville, Minnesota.