Fiasco

The American Military Adventure in Iraq

By: Thomas E. Ricks

Narrated by: James Lurie

Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondant Thomas E. Ricks' 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 an audiobook whose tragic verdict feels definitive.

©2006 Thomas E. Ricks (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Critic reviews

"Staggeringly vivid and persuasive...absolutely essential reading." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

"The best account yet of the entire war." (Vanity Fair)

Worth Every Minute of Listening

Frustrating to relive the decisions made that have mired us for more than a decade.

Hopefully we have learned enough to salvage something good from our adventure into Iraq.

This is a reminder that vigilance and standing for right are not easy especially in times of war.

tripe

if you had cable with CNN during the 2000s you know all of this book. its collection of accusations that are placed with no documents that have been proven false or made up. it's just a bunch of character assasinations by self serving people to carry a shallow narrative. The Generals named did little to stop supposed misinformation. they just planned the invasion. Congress was the same fools who are misinformed, by who, the same generals who knew better? If you bought the book is like a collection of old New York Times opeds critiquing CNN coverage. No new info or perspectives. I could have gotten more from watching carntoons...the carntoons are far less snarky

Excellent book

Excellent book..

political bullshit

I am a staff Sargeant retired there is no personal stories or experience just this CO'S opinions. Bunch of political banter.

Retrospectively proven wrong

I lived the wars of Iraq (2 tours 04-05 and 09-10) and Afghanistan (07-08). It is interesting to go back and read about history I was apart of. With that said this book missed the mark. It was written at the height of the insurgency and ran with an idea that we were going to lose the war... Silly, but understandable if viewed from 05-06 time frame.

There were some takeaways that are still valid today:
1. The lack of credible intelligence leading to a faulty invasion plan
2. Lack of clear campaign endstate (although he blames generals, I blame washington, it isn't the military's responsibility to set the conditions of victory... if you left it to us we would just smash everything and leave)
3. Politics kills more Soldiers than the enemy and civilians shouldn't be in charge of defense