This is a first-hand account of three Army 80th (Blue Ridge) Division Soldiers who were sent to Iraq in 2005-06 as Iraqi Army advisors. Brig. Gen. John McLaren, who commanded the Iraqi Assistance Group in Baghdad, Col. Paul Linkenhoker, who advised the Iraqi base commander for Taji, and Maj. Gary Schreckengost, who was the lead operations advisor for the Iraqi fightin' 4th Brigade, 1st Division, in Fallujah. Read how these Blue Ridge Division Soldiers answered their country's call and what it was like to be combat advisors to a very foreign army in a very foreign land in varied settings and...

Long forgotten and tucked between the War of 1812 and the War of the Southern Rebellion, the War with Mexico (1846-48) is actually very germane for the modern reader because it shows how limited wars, what Rudyard Kipling called "The Savage Wars of Peace," should actually be fought. Knowing that he could only go in with a few thousand soldiers, General Scott ensured that the Mexican government stayed intact during the war so he could negotiate with it. In this way, the U.S. did not need a large occupation force to achieve its objectives. This is therefore the story of how a "Savage War for...