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Combat Zone: True Tales of GIs in Iraq, Vol 1 (TP) Review posted: 20 Aug 2005 Writer: Karl Zinsmeister Artist: Dan Jurgens Artist: Sandu Florea Letters: Virtual Calligraphy Colors: Raul Trevino Publisher: Marvel Comics  4.00 out of 5 Stars Reviewed by J. W. De Bolt Jr

Karl Zinsmeister traveled as an embedded reporter with the 82^nd Airborne Division in Iraq during 2003 and 2004. He has written up his observations in articles and books. Marvel Comics asked him to bring them to the comicbook medium. Zinsmeister agreed as long as the work could be written completely realistically. Marvel planned to release a five­issue

Debates about the very publication of Combat Zone raged on the Web between those in favor and those against the U.S. efforts to stabilize the region.

mini­series some time last year. They pushed back the release date a few times and the last I heard, they had changed the release date to January 2005 and then to March. Then it still didn’t come out. Rumored reasons were that Zinsmeister wasn’t used to the medium, or that Marvel was rethinking its release due to the clamor over the subject matter, or that the editors couldn’t schedule properly. The first few issues did appear on the Diamond Comic Distributor’s shipping list, but the issues never came — that I know of. Meanwhile, vociferous debates about the very publication of Combat Zone raged on the Web between those in favor and those against the U.S. efforts to stabilize the region. The debaters were criticizing or supporting the production of Combat Zone without ever having seen it. After a couple more months, release of the series must have been cancelled because the trade paperback suddenly showed up on Diamond’s list, and though my regular comicbook store did not order it, Liberty Comics in College Park, Maryland, did.

Having seen it now myself, I feel I can safely make a comment or two. Each of the five chapters of the book follows a Division of soldiers in their duties. Through the work, we can observe the environment U.S. troops have volunteered to be in: the heat of the desert, the weekly sandstorms, six-inch-long insects — and, of course, being under fire. We can feel what these soldiers felt in their daily activities: concern for fellow soldiers, fear, missing home, mixed feelings about the food, sadness at the loss of a comrade, and the sense of humor that allows everyone to keep functioning even while in mortal danger. The Division comprises soldiers from various geographic locations: Brooklyn, Cajun country, Texas, upstate New York.

The general in charge of this corner of the conflict wanted a reporter covering their actions in order to prevent disinformation. In Afghanistan, after many of the battles between the coalition troops and the Taliban, the Taliban would try to spread tales of coalition atrocities since there were no non-military witnesses. Zinsmeister would be a witness in Iraq.

For the specific situations of this war, the troops train in, among other things, how to pacify an angry mob and what to do if they see an armed guerrilla amidst the group. U.S. soldiers take great pains to avoid civilian casualties and to prevent damage to national landmarks and holy places — even if it means more danger to them or the possibility of mission failure. A subgroup of airborne troops specializes in door-to-door urban combat, where each building has to be entered without knowing whether innocent civilians are inside or if a guerrilla is going to have a shoulder-fired missile aimed at them.

We see the use of the high technology to keep the troops safe, such as the Patriot missiles that can take out the guerrillas’ SCUDs and other Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles in mid-air. Technical lingo, like CG and FARP, is thankfully footnoted for us civilians. We learn a bit about strategy and tactics, about the usefulness of artillery, night-vision scopes, GPS-guided bombs and other equipment and munitions.

Since Zinsmeister is making day-to-day observations, these are not plot-driven stories as much as a travelogue of sorts. The Division gets their first mission: clearing guerrillas out, going door-to-door in towns along the Euphrates River, including Ur, the oldest known city in the world (see Excavations at Ur, by Leonard Woolley, for a good prehistory of the place).

“We’re pinned! We’ve gotta hit these guys with something that’ll either kill ‘em all, or hurt them so bad that fighting us will be the least of their worries.”

In the second chapter, the Division holds its position against guerrillas attempting night attacks from “technicals,” that is, civilian vehicles converted for military use — usually pick-up trucks with machine guns or mortars in the back. Chapter three brings us an opportunity for the Division to take out two high-level Baath commanders thanks to intelligence provided by an informant. The proximity of a school and some residences cause concern in how to proceed. On the one hand, taking out the two guerrilla officials during their secret meeting would likely allow the Division to liberate the city within 48 hours, and they have a 2,000-pound bomb that would definitely do the job. On the other hand, the collateral damage — to the neighboring residences and school — would be less controllable. The general decides to use 18-pound warheads on missiles fired from Hellfires — Kiowa­class helicopters. This is much more dangerous for the troops involved, since they have to move in closer, and the smaller ordinance makes it less likely to achieve the objective. But this is necessary due to the restricted rules of engagement, which heavily emphasize the avoidance of collateral damage and the endangerment of civilians. Soldiers gamble with their own lives in order to follow the rules. Chapter four finds a unit pinned down while trying to secure a bridge over the Euphrates. Superior knowledge, teamwork, bravery and sacrifice get the unit free and allow it to prepare with the rest of the Division for the general assault to take the bridge which is attempted in chapter five.

The book shows the difficulty the U.S. armed forces have in trying to take out guerrilla fighters. The guerrillas use human shields, either by directly dragging civilians in front of them or, for example, by taking position in a hospital and firing out of the windows of patients’ rooms with the patients still lying on their beds. The guerrillas will drive up in ambulances and then open fire. They sometimes pretend to give up and when they are close enough to the U.S. soldiers, they attack. Meanwhile, U.S. troops cannot fire on civilians or ambulances or hospitals or mosques. They can’t damage or desecrate anything without sufficient reason. When they have a doubt, they don’t fire. And yet they still persevere in their mission. I think Combat Zone leaves the reader with the feeling that despite having their hands tied with enforced disadvantages, the soldiers of the 82^nd Airborne Division still respect the rules imposed on them and are still eager to fulfill their mission to make Iraq safe for its citizens. One cannot support the troops and yet not support their mission. A successful mission will bring them home safely. So before determining whether or not the comicbook industry or Marvel Comics in particular should censor its stories (and it hasn’t censored the metaphorically anti-Iraq-war stories in Ultimates 2, New Avengers and Secret War), perhaps critics should read what they are criticizing first. The book isn’t political; the reader simply sees the war through the eyes of the soldier.