Bush is gone. But Iraq ain’t over.

Posted by Conrad Reyners & filed under Blog.

Tom Ricks has been slamming the US invasion of Iraq for quite some time. His first book Fiasco, was pretty hard hitting stuff – and he is widely regarded as one of the best writers/analysts/soothsayers of his field.

He has put out a second book – focusing mainly on the handling of Iraq by the now replaced General Petraeus. He has ominously named it The Gamble: General Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq.

With Iraqi election results already being announced, its no better a time to take stock of Iraq after the American “democratization” experiment. And Ricks has some pretty sobering things to say; Have a listen.

6 Responses to “Bush is gone. But Iraq ain’t over.”

  1. Freya

    Conrad. Did your Mum drop you as a baby after she dipped your head in fanta? Perhaps she dropped you in the fanta. It’s ain’t not ‘aint. Fool.

  4. Matthew_Cunningham

    Well spotted, Conrad. I haven’t read ‘The Gamble’, but ‘Fiasco’ is a fantastic read – it provides a thorough assessment of the motivations and methods by which the Iraq War was waged, as well as a prescient prediction of where things were heading in the near future. In saying that, I think the awakening movement in late 2007 was a wildcard that neither he, nor anyone else, predicted, which had (and continues to have) the potential to either stabilise or massively destabilise the situation on the ground.

    His assessment of the surge in this video is fairly sound; however, I do wonder if he might reconsider his position in the wake of the largely peaceful provincial elections that were recently held in Iraq. I’d like to know what his position was on the surge when it was first announced. The majority of the press (including the Washington Post if I recall correctly) heaped scorn all over it – likening it to ‘rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic’ – and yet the level of success it achieved, whilst far from perfect, was certainly noteworthy.

    All in all, a very intelligent man who has written two very intelligent books.