Youngblood by Matt Gallagher

Published by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster  on February 2, 2016

Youngblood is not a conventional war story. It is a war story for people who appreciate Yeats, who think beyond clichés about duty.

Told in the first person by Lt. Jack Porter, Youngblood takes place after the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. The time is post-Surge. Porter’s platoon conducts joint missions with the Iraqi military, surveys neighborhoods to ask how often they have electricity, and tries to gather intelligence while dodging IEDs during endless patrols.

Porter is stuck with a sergeant who has earned a reputation among Iraqis for killing civilians. The sergeant’s attitude, which only makes Porter’s job more difficult, motivates Porter to get the sergeant out of his platoon.

The plot has Porter trying to figure out which intelligence sources are telling the truth, a difficult task in an environment where truth is flexible and all sources (American and Iraqi) are unreliable. Usually the plot in a war novel takes place against the background of war, but the plot almost recedes into the background in Youngblood. This is more the story of a soldier’s life than a novel with a strong plot. Eventually, however, the story focuses on Porter’s attempt to help the mother of two children who helped his platoon, and on Porter’s conflict with the sergeant.

The story emphasizes the failure of America’s stated mission to “win the hearts and minds” of Iraqis, in conflict with a strategy of “let’s show them who’s boss.” Thoughtless destruction and the killing of innocents, based on rumor or conjecture or whim or mistake, made it impossible to win anything but hatred. Americans put their boots on the ground and their lives at risk to accomplish little of value to American interests. Getting soldiers home alive eventually becomes Porter’s only purpose.

Porter is a likable character He has a nuanced view of the impossible situation that the occupation of Iraq created for the occupiers and the occupied. He doesn’t stereotype Arabs. He sympathizes with the families of the innocent Iraqis who are killed and with the soldiers who killed them. He questions why higher officers accept intelligence reports that are clearly unfounded. He is, in short, smart and compassionate. I also like Porter’s analysis of the military’s cliques -- fobbits versus infantry versus Rangers, each group viewing the others with a degree of contempt, and everyone hating the officers who give orders from safe locations without regard to their consequences.

Matt Gallagher brings a refreshing complexity to Porter’s character. Porter’s brother, to whom he turns for advice, won the Silver Star, but behaves like a jerk while spouting self-serving clichés about leadership and duty that gloss over the moral concerns that trouble Porter. It’s easy to justify bad acts when you call yourself one of the “good guys,” a realization that, to Porter, makes “leadership” seem like a bad joke. Much of the novel’s strength comes from Porter’s struggle to recognize that his brother’s commitment to “moral courage” is too simplistic to be a useful guidepost in a complex world.

Gallagher’s writing style is sometimes a little clunky -- his metaphors don’t always work -- but for the most part his prose flows smoothly. He creates moments of genuine tension without relying on melodrama. The story builds slowly but by the end, it is quite powerful. That makes Youngblood one of the better contributions to the literature of Middle East war.

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