Review: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy

A weekend non-fiction book review!  Because sometimes even Pastors need a break from heavy theological reading!

Jim Proser. No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.  New York, NY: HarperLuxe, August 7th 2018. 416 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

This is the first book on James Mattis.  Mattis is probably our generation’s best combat general.  A career Marine who served in uniform for forty four years he also went on to become the Secretary of Defense and one who received nearly unanimous bipartisan support for his nomination which is quite impressive in a day and age of much political division and partisanship in the United States.  For years I have been amazed at how low profile General Mattis have been compared to how much public attention the US media has given other Army generals.  It seem overnight a few years ago Mattis started to finally receive a lot of attention and praise and usually through the medium of social media making jokes about his exploits and strength. Yet people’s hunger to know more about this tough talking and private general has only increased when news broke that Trump wanted him to be Secretary of Defense.  Personally as a Marine who served under General Mattis’ 1^st Marine Division in Iraq I am glad that the author wrote this book.  I actually think it has been long overdue.

While the book comes in at 416 pages don’t let the number fool you.  The book’s font is rather large print.  After an introduction there are ten chapters followed by an epilogue.  The work is written in a journalistic style.  The author Jim Proser didn’t narrate chronologically but each chapter goes back and forth in time.  For instance the first four chapters focus largely on the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but then chapter five looks at a Jim Mattis’ youth and also his interests of a young woman that he almost married but didn’t.  Jim Mattis would go on to become a lifelong bachelor with the nickname of Warrior Monk (among other things such as Chaos).  Then chapter six looks at Mattis pre-Gulf War Marine Corps career followed by a chapter on Mattis’ service during the Gulf War.  Chapter eight explores the pre-9/11 years while chapter nine looks at Mattis leading Task Force 58 which was the Marine and Navy task force that spearheaded the invasion into Afghanistan.  Chapter ten then looks at Mattis’ involvement in Iraq after the Iraq war invasion.

It felt the first four chapters quoted a lot more online internet sources that many fans of Mattis would have been familiar with through searches engines of the internet.  Also the book quotes heavily from Generation Kill in the opening of the book and Thomas Ricks’ books and articles throughout the book (who is a writer with excellent insight by the way).  For those who have read these works at times it seems the block quotes from these works was a revisit of previous materials.  Yet I don’t want to fault the author too much since the author is writing about a man who would not enjoy the limelight and no sources of this book came from direct interviews of Mattis as far as I can tell from the end notes.  The part of the book that I thought was the most richest in terms of new contents comes from the book’s look at Mattis’ early years, Mattis’ leadership in the Persian Gulf War and also the invasion of Afghanistan.  Here the author is to be commended for the great work of personal interviews with Mattis’ superiors and subordinates.  Also there’s sources from Mattis’ career record, other official studies and publication and those who fought under Mattis.  I learned the most from this book in those time of Mattis’ life.  As a result of reading this book I appreciated not just only Mattis but Marine Desert Storm veterans much more as a result of hearing what Mattis’ infantry battalion and his task force went through during the invasion of Kuwait.  I was genuinely surprised to learned that at one point Mattis’ unit was surrounded by the enemy in the front and rear of where they were at; that’s pretty crazy!  Also I appreciated reading about the incredible feat of Mattis in mobile warfare while also being an expert of counterinsurgency.  It is not every day that you get a military expert in either of those area but to have a guy expert in one is truly incredible.  Also it is incredible to think that General Mattis led not just only the invasion of Afghanistan but also Iraq.  Most people might be accustom to think of General being in a place safer than the average grunt but what I appreciate the most about Mattis from this book is his love for the infantry.  He would be visiting the front often.  Also I was very moved to read of the danger Mattis put himself in in order to lead effectively.  His “jump platoon” that protected him received higher casualties than any infantry platoon in the Marines; out of 29 Marines 17 would be killed or wounded.  The book talks about Mattis’ convoy being ambushed in Afghanistan and his escort taking casualties and killing the insurgents with Mattis’ uniform being bloodied as he showed up late to the meeting with the local leaders will blood on his uniform.  This was the context for the (in)famous quote where Mattis said he didn’t bring the artillery but he pleads with tears in his eyes not to mess with him.

A book that was worth reading.  A book worth buying.  I hope more critical and analytical biographies would come out on Mattis in the future.