Sinking of the Merrimac Book

The author shadows David Petraeus during the invasion of Iraq, and after each recounted episode contrasts the competence and integrity of the soldiers with that of the Bush administration.

Lots of minutiae about somewhat random things, like discussions over whether to tape or paint helicopter blades to protect them from the sand. Those particular details weren't completely random, the vulnerability of helicopters to ground fire and sand is mentioned repeatedly.

The story of the looting is interesting - in another book it is mentioned that U.S. soldiers were authorized to shoot looters while in Haiti (or another country?) in the 90's, and there was therefore no looting. In Iraq no authorization existed, and there was a high level acceptance of the looting of Baath party buildings which degenerated into the looting of anything by the time that filtered to the street level. The author talks about painstaking attention made by the military to not damaging city infrastructure (the more they damage the longer they have to stay around afterward to see it rebuilt), but then the looters ended up destroying it in the anarchy following the invasion.