Fiasco : The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005

The definitive military chronicle of the Iraq war and a searing judgment on the strategic blindness with which America has conducted it, drawing on the accounts of senior military officers giving voice to their anger for the first time. Pulitzer Prize-winning __Washington Post__ senior Pentagon correspondant Thomas E. Ricks's __Fiasco__ is masterful and explosive reckoning with the planning and execution of the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq, based on the unprecedented candor of key participants. The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in __Fiasco__, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster. As many in the military publicly acknowledge here for the first time, the guerrilla insurgency that exploded several months after Saddam's fall was not foreordained. In fact, to a shocking degree, it was created by the folly of the war's architects. But the officers who did raise their voices against the miscalculations, shortsightedness, and general failure of the war effort were generally crushed, their careers often ended. A willful blindness gripped political and military leaders, and dissent was not tolerated. There are a number of heroes in __Fiasco__-inspiring leaders from the highest levels of the Army and Marine hierarchies to the men and women whose skill and bravery led to battlefield success in towns from Fallujah to Tall Afar-but again and again, strategic incoherence rendered tactical success meaningless. There was never any question that the U.S. military would topple Saddam Hussein, but as Fiasco shows there was also never any real thought about what would come next. This blindness has ensured the Iraq war a place in history as nothing less than a fiasco. Fair, vivid, and devastating, __Fiasco__ is a book whose tragic verdict feels definitive. Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • One of the Washington Post Book World's 10 Best Books of the Year • Time's 10 Best Books of the Year • USA Today's Nonfiction Book of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book'Staggeringly vivid and persuasive... absolutely essential reading.'—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times'The best account yet of the entire war.'—Vanity Fair The definitive account of the American military's tragic experience in Iraq Fiasco is a masterful reckoning with the planning and execution of the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq through mid-2006, now with a postscript on recent developments. Ricks draws on the exclusive cooperation of an extraordinary number of American personnel, including more than one hundred senior officers, and access to more than 30,000 pages of official documents, many of them never before made public. Tragically, it is an undeniable account—explosive, shocking, and authoritative—of unsurpassed tactical success combined with unsurpassed strategic failure that indicts some of America's most powerful and honored civilian and military leaders. Containment -- A Bad Ending -- Containment And Its Discontents -- This Changes Everything: The Aftermath Of 9/11 -- The War Of Words -- The Run-up -- The Silence Of The Lambs -- Into Iraq -- Winning A Battle -- How To Create An Insurgency (i) -- How To Create An Insurgency (ii) -- The Cpa: Can't Produce Anything -- Getting Tough -- The Descent Into Abuse -- The Long Term -- The Army Of The Euphrates Takes Stock -- The Marine Corps Files A Dissent -- The Surprise -- The Price Paid -- The Corrections -- Turnover -- Too Little Too Late? -- Betting Against History. Thomas E. Ricks. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [441]-462) And Index. [In this book, the author offers an] account - explosive, shocking, and authoritative - of the American military's tragic experience in Iraq. [The book also offers] accounts of battles such as 2nd Fallujah and Tall Afar, whose names should take their place alongside two Jima and Porkchop Hill on a select list of honor ... Too many American and Iraqi lives have been lost, and too much of America's might and influence has been squandered, for these individuals to escape a fair reckoning. [This book] is that reckoning.-Dust jacket Bogen er et særdeles kritisk indlæg vedr. krigen i Irak og håndteringen af den efterfølgende invasion og besættelse. Bogen bygger bl.a. på adskillige hundrede samtaler med soldater og embedsmænd på alle niveauer. Det påpeges, at håndteringen af situationen i Irak efter invasionen har været præget af manglende planlægning, dårlig koordinering mellem militære og civile myndigheder, et utilstrækkelig antal soldater og mangel på strategi, når det drejer sig om at forebygge og nedkæmpe oprør "In this book, the author offers an account of the American military's experience in Iraq. The book also offers accounts of battles such as second Fallujah and Tall Afar. Too many American and Iraqi lives have been lost, and too much of America's might and influence has been squandered, for these individuals to escape a fair reckoning. This book is that reckoning"--Adapted from the dust jacket This is the Story of The American Military Adventure in Iraq. The Heart of the story Fiasco has to tell, which has never been told before, is that of a Military occupation whose leaders failed to see a blooming insurgency for what it was and as a result lead their soldiers in such a way that the insurgency became inevitable. Iraq War Iraq,War;,history;,military,history;,world,politics;,current,events Iraq War,history,military history,world politics,current events