Fiasco - Thomas E. Ricks

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About Thomas E. Ricks

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Fiasco

The American Military Adventure in Iraq

» Thomas E. Ricks

Penguin
Paperback : 03 May 2007

£9.99

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Synopsis

Cutting through the headlines and spin, this is the first book to give us a true picture of the reality on the ground, through the words of the people there - from commanders to intelligence officers, army doctors to ordinary soldiers. Providing eye-witness accounts that contradict the official stories and figures, they give a chilling picture of the deceit, stupidity, wishful thinking, lack of forward planning and total intellectual failure of those behind the invasion. The result is an extraordinary new insight into the plight of ordinary soldiers doing nightmarish jobs, and the real nature of the fighting in Iraq.

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Reviews

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Critic Review:

‘Almost beyond belief … Operation Iraqi Freedom has proved the most disastrous venture in modern times. On putting down this book, one is amazed that no move has yet been made to impeach its architects’
Antony Beevor

‘Possibly the most powerful critique of Anglo-American security and foreign policy in our time’
Evening Standard

‘There will be no better explanation of what went wrong and why’
Spectator, Books of the Year

‘A litany of warnings neglected, intelligence abused, feuding generals and stupefying waste’
Sunday Times

‘As devastating account of military folly as can be imagined’
The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

‘Ricks’s coruscating analysis offers examples of official arrogance and stupidity on every page’
Time Out

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Interview

Fiasco
The American Military Adventure in Iraq
Thomas E. Ricks

A piece by The Editor

Ever since George Bush launched his invasion of Iraq I have been looking for the book that would convert what has been a mass of confusing and depressing news stories into a proper, reliable, intelligent history. The invasion has by any measure been the single most important foreign policy decision taken so far this decade, and it was a decision now taken quite a long time ago – and yet no book has arrived drawing together all the threads.

Tom Ricks’ Fiasco magnificently fulfils this critically important role. Ricks has reported on America’s wars for many years, both for The Wall Street Journal and for The Washington Post. His marvellous book Making the Corps was a uniquely thoughtful and absorbing account of the ethos of the American Marine Corps. He knows the American military inside out and has spent a lot of time in the Middle East.

Fiasco is absolutely embargoed until August 1st, but I think it is fair to say, without giving anything away, that the content is devastating. Ricks, because of his previous work, has been close for many years to American soldiers, from generals to privates, and is trusted by them. A stream of devastating emails, letters and interviews from them result in an absolutely compelling history of the war, from its origins in the 1991 attack on Kuwait to the present. It is a great book about combat – the horrific fighting in Fallujah and Najaf, for example, has never been better or more vividly presented, and Ricks is absolutely respectful of the ordinary soldiers having to do awful things. But it is also a great book about what happens when a handful of poorly informed ideologues find themselves in power in a Washington and faced with supine, weak military commanders and a feeble-minded Congress.

Fiasco is a book that will crystallize how we think about the war and show us all how the different parts really fitted together. In the spring Ricks talked about his book to an electrified audience at Penguin, concluding by saying ‘I used to be an English teacher – tragedies are meant to have five acts. We are now only in the third act of this tragedy – it will get worse and we no longer have any real control over how those last acts will play out’.