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Sergeant Over One Week
Days after Ali Dashti's graduation from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Kuwait was invaded by Saddam Hussain's Army. Urged to volunteer as a civilian translator for US troops in Operation Desert Shield by the Kuwait Embassy, Ali soon found himself not only fighting on the frontlines, but also promoted to the rank of sergeant in the US Army. Written in a style that is open and honest, Sergeant Over One Week gives readers an up-close and true account of Desert Storm from the perspective of a Kuwaiti citizen and international student who volunteered to serve in the US Army.
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First published January 22, 2007
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August 28, 2022
Dr. Ali Dashti’s war journals account the realism of the Gulf War in a very interesting way, told in truth unlike how it was portrayed by some of the mass media outlets and their machines of propaganda.
The book begins with Dr. Dashti’s journey on the pursuit of higher education after graduation from his hometown Kuwait. Being influenced and supported by his relatives to study abroad in the US, Dashti managed to pursue that path and met very intelligent people and scholars along the way. Dashti seemed like he was seeking a future he was constructing of his own at first but soon after his graduation, his country Kuwait gets invaded by Iraq under Saddam Hussain’s tyrannical regime.
What makes the accounts in his book especially interesting is that it reviews the dynamics of big power politics and how it affects people in different attitudes. Dr. Dashti accounts his unordinary experience in being obliged by his embassy to work as a translator during the start of the invasion not knowing he will sooner or later end up working with the US military intelligence brigade. With unprovided notice, Dashti was taken as a student to train with the US army curiously wondering about the fate yet to come.
Adjusting to the reality of himself transitioning from a scholar to a soldier being sent to the frontlines and help liberate his country, he wrote some interesting observations of the events surrounding him in the training facilities and the battlegrounds. It was very fascinating to know that each group in the military, especially in training facilities, have their own cults of personalities. Dashti was from the less serious group that liked to sometimes fool and play around unlike the other more “serious” group that was considered privileged because they got to the facility first, seems a bit unfair but Dashti’s group had more fun.
When sent to the frontlines, Dashti wrote a daily briefing in his journals on the events surrounding him and the decisions being given by commanders which gave honest truth of how people of different cult of personalities can get along. This would emphasize him knowing that the U.S. is in for the oil as he was confronted by one of the commanders, but in his soul he was deeply considered in the interest of liberating his country despite the unplanned circumstances his fate brought him to. I love how he also emphasizes the deep concerns and interest of different characters while stationed at his brigades.
The accounts and observations in his journals gave me hard thuds, especially when he explains why some soldiers would give up and lose their spirits and morals. It was that when soldiers at the moments of despair usually turned to playboy magazines instead of God to help determine their innermost peace. Dashti observed that it was usually those soldiers who ended up always complaining and not knowing why they are doing the things they are doing. It was usually the lack of meaningful cause or a reason to stand by, in Dr. Dashti’s case he stood by God and he did that for his life and his country while others didn’t know why they were even there at the frontlines digging foxholes.
Sooner after the devastating trip to home, Dashti found himself in another psychological hell after he gets into a car crash flipping over 4 times coming out with broken ribs and injuries. Fortunately, he did unconsciously survive the crash but it was just the “start of the end” as I quote from one of his chapters. Dashti soon finds himself transported from Kuwait’s hospitals to King Khalid’s Military City in Saudi Arabia just to find himself in another trouble. This time he was transported, treated, but then to find himself astray with no ID’s and documentations. You really won’t believe how Dashti’s twisting plots match the twisting plots of thriller action fiction writer David Baldacci or Fredrick Forsyth, but it is the dynamics of big power politics attributing to the distress of reality in Dashti’s case. Despite his flushed efforts of trying to get back to his country, he did finally find his way back to his family safe having accepted what he went through.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, it’s one of the greatest accounts on how soldiers can be affected by the outcomes of political actors’ foreign policy implementations. Dashti was also very plural and concerned about the policy implemented by all sides including the US and his country. He proportionally dwelled on the crusade of the U.S. in arming Iraq against Iran and creating a tyrant out Iraq’s leadership. I think that the phenomenon of Western weapons being deployed abroad still continues to this day given the Russian-Ukrainian situation with the whole scenes of Ukraine’s leadership being armed via U.S. foreign policy agendas. History repeats itself!
The book begins with Dr. Dashti’s journey on the pursuit of higher education after graduation from his hometown Kuwait. Being influenced and supported by his relatives to study abroad in the US, Dashti managed to pursue that path and met very intelligent people and scholars along the way. Dashti seemed like he was seeking a future he was constructing of his own at first but soon after his graduation, his country Kuwait gets invaded by Iraq under Saddam Hussain’s tyrannical regime.
What makes the accounts in his book especially interesting is that it reviews the dynamics of big power politics and how it affects people in different attitudes. Dr. Dashti accounts his unordinary experience in being obliged by his embassy to work as a translator during the start of the invasion not knowing he will sooner or later end up working with the US military intelligence brigade. With unprovided notice, Dashti was taken as a student to train with the US army curiously wondering about the fate yet to come.
Adjusting to the reality of himself transitioning from a scholar to a soldier being sent to the frontlines and help liberate his country, he wrote some interesting observations of the events surrounding him in the training facilities and the battlegrounds. It was very fascinating to know that each group in the military, especially in training facilities, have their own cults of personalities. Dashti was from the less serious group that liked to sometimes fool and play around unlike the other more “serious” group that was considered privileged because they got to the facility first, seems a bit unfair but Dashti’s group had more fun.
When sent to the frontlines, Dashti wrote a daily briefing in his journals on the events surrounding him and the decisions being given by commanders which gave honest truth of how people of different cult of personalities can get along. This would emphasize him knowing that the U.S. is in for the oil as he was confronted by one of the commanders, but in his soul he was deeply considered in the interest of liberating his country despite the unplanned circumstances his fate brought him to. I love how he also emphasizes the deep concerns and interest of different characters while stationed at his brigades.
The accounts and observations in his journals gave me hard thuds, especially when he explains why some soldiers would give up and lose their spirits and morals. It was that when soldiers at the moments of despair usually turned to playboy magazines instead of God to help determine their innermost peace. Dashti observed that it was usually those soldiers who ended up always complaining and not knowing why they are doing the things they are doing. It was usually the lack of meaningful cause or a reason to stand by, in Dr. Dashti’s case he stood by God and he did that for his life and his country while others didn’t know why they were even there at the frontlines digging foxholes.
Sooner after the devastating trip to home, Dashti found himself in another psychological hell after he gets into a car crash flipping over 4 times coming out with broken ribs and injuries. Fortunately, he did unconsciously survive the crash but it was just the “start of the end” as I quote from one of his chapters. Dashti soon finds himself transported from Kuwait’s hospitals to King Khalid’s Military City in Saudi Arabia just to find himself in another trouble. This time he was transported, treated, but then to find himself astray with no ID’s and documentations. You really won’t believe how Dashti’s twisting plots match the twisting plots of thriller action fiction writer David Baldacci or Fredrick Forsyth, but it is the dynamics of big power politics attributing to the distress of reality in Dashti’s case. Despite his flushed efforts of trying to get back to his country, he did finally find his way back to his family safe having accepted what he went through.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, it’s one of the greatest accounts on how soldiers can be affected by the outcomes of political actors’ foreign policy implementations. Dashti was also very plural and concerned about the policy implemented by all sides including the US and his country. He proportionally dwelled on the crusade of the U.S. in arming Iraq against Iran and creating a tyrant out Iraq’s leadership. I think that the phenomenon of Western weapons being deployed abroad still continues to this day given the Russian-Ukrainian situation with the whole scenes of Ukraine’s leadership being armed via U.S. foreign policy agendas. History repeats itself!
Displaying 1 of 1 review