Book Review: Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.
So, I hate to sound like a shill, but in the overwhelming (and frequently overweening) volume of literature written about this US administration, neoconservatives, and this disastrous war in Iraq - Thomas Ricks' book deserves special mention.
If you care to read a clear novel that names names, puts its finger on several decisive missteps, and what was done to correct them - all in the context of trying to understand how it is we have come to this point in Iraq, then this is your book.
I actually appreciate the book's clear-headedness, and basic honesty Thomas Ricks conveys about those things he does not know, or cannot know. The book really pries open the multifaceted frustrations within the military, and for a yardstick to judge given actions - sticks to the real results, the history, and past counterinsurgencies ... not abstract ideologies.
I thought I'd be profoundly depressed after reading this book, but I wasn't. I gained a sense that there really are clever people within the military who are trying to make the most of a ruinous situation, and they have their own deeply embedded doubts about the future. Furthermore, Ricks' outline of three possible scenario futures for the US & Iraq, all of them distasteful, nevertheless reiterates how seemingly irretrievably linked the US is to the Iraqi lodestone. Let's hope this isn't a new iteration of the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
So, I hate to sound like a shill, but in the overwhelming (and frequently overweening) volume of literature written about this US administration, neoconservatives, and this disastrous war in Iraq - Thomas Ricks' book deserves special mention.
If you care to read a clear novel that names names, puts its finger on several decisive missteps, and what was done to correct them - all in the context of trying to understand how it is we have come to this point in Iraq, then this is your book.
I actually appreciate the book's clear-headedness, and basic honesty Thomas Ricks conveys about those things he does not know, or cannot know. The book really pries open the multifaceted frustrations within the military, and for a yardstick to judge given actions - sticks to the real results, the history, and past counterinsurgencies ... not abstract ideologies.
I thought I'd be profoundly depressed after reading this book, but I wasn't. I gained a sense that there really are clever people within the military who are trying to make the most of a ruinous situation, and they have their own deeply embedded doubts about the future. Furthermore, Ricks' outline of three possible scenario futures for the US & Iraq, all of them distasteful, nevertheless reiterates how seemingly irretrievably linked the US is to the Iraqi lodestone. Let's hope this isn't a new iteration of the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.