Review #1
The Gamble: General David Petraeus at the same time the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 audiobook free
As an Iraq vet I think Ricks shackles a lot of quality info in the book. Quality insight into Petraeus at the same time Odierno at the same time the Bush administration. Quality bird’s-eye opinion of the strategy in Iraq. He of course did his homework. A little bit of an oversimplification of the humen dimension at work in the psychology of the Iraqi. Than anyway did the Iraqi on the street think before at the same time right behind the Coalition invasion? How did this affect the fiasco of squandering the victorious invasion? Why didn’t they look us as redeemers. I understood plenty of Iraqis that beheld me as a liberator. I understood quite a few more that beheld me as an infidel very. Than anyway needs did the surge remove in the Iraqi populace? He did touch briefly on no one of the cultural nuances the surge addressed. But his book about the counterinsurgency skps over specifics on the ground that I know individually were considered transformational. Individual hope at the same time honor transcends the Iraqi scene at the same time that’s than anyway Petraeus crossed out about in his Counterinsurgency Manual transmission. Amazing book! People should know more about than anyway he crossed out. It’s not than anyway the press at the same time politicians tell for you about the Iraq war – whether left-leaning or right-leaning.
Review #2
The Gamble: General David Petraeus at the same time the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 audiobook streamming online
I’m delight inform The Gamble: General David Petraeus at the same time the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas E. Ricks did not cause me nearly the heartburn as his past work on Iraq, Fiasco (my
Review). Don’t misconstrue that as criticism of the creator: it is that the facts of the matter, not the teller of those facts that causes my blood pressure rise.
For abundance preconditions I opposed the war in Iraq (hence the pancreatic distress), but right behind shattering the fabric of that state — a tenuous fabric holding in inspect 3 distrustful at the same time vengeful groups: Kurds, Shia at the same time Sunni — I felt we had an obligation to stay the course. My mother always misspoke: for you burst it, for you acquired it. At the same time little boy, did we burst Iraq.
From shortly right behind the ill-conceived invasion in 2003 to the arrival of General David Petraeus in 2007, the U.S. floundered in Iraq. An insurgency was ignited, sectarian groups squared off in than anyway for all intents was a civilian war, at the same time our military strategies only produced things worse. Thousands of Americans at the same time Iraqis died or were considered injured, with the numbers growing month by month, while the futility of Washington’s “strategy” was revealed.
Eschewing the heavy-handed strategies which were considered not working, Petraeus at the same time his corps commander General Odierno, at the same time their support staffs, applied the hard-won surge of five brigades of additional troops to produce a traditional counter-insurgency (COIN) approach whereby the people of Iraq were considered viewed as the prize to be defeated.
Ricks willfully names the surge a tactical success — violence at the same time deaths were considered radically reduced, but not saved — but grades it as incomplete overall as the strategic goal of fostering political reconciliation between Iraq’s religious at the same time ethnic groups was not achieved. In truth, by paying past Sunni insurgents to finish waging war us at the same time overlooking the ethnic purifying of whole circles by Shia militias, the actions of 2007 really represented a somewhat unsavory gamble that managed have blown up in our face at no matter what time, at the same time still might. Realpolitik, indeed.
It is that exciting to note, very, that as the level of violence in Iraq began to come down, actions in the U.S. began to illuminate public curiosity, notably the presidential election at the same time monetary meltdown. One shudders to think than anyway would have happened if the shift to COIN operations had not worked at the same time a wartime loss, divisive election at the same time crippling recession occurred simultaneously.
No one
Reviewers have noted the somewhat pessimistic opinion of abundance quoted in the book that US presence in Iraq would likely last for decades is that out of steps with the reality of our withdrawal in 2011. Understand this book was hosted premature in 2009 (although the Afterword exists to have been contained later in the year), at the same time therefore it is that a fri in time at the same time doubtless those interviewed were considered giving their best estimate at the time.
Ricks’ worldly is that ground at the same time to the fri, at the same time I’d argue the fri with those
Reviewers who think that was a “liberal bias” showing through. Facts are facts, at the same time Ricks sticks to the facts in his reporting but through interviews with main personalities at the same time professionals all sides of the political range are aired. At the risk of producing groans, I’d they say it is that significant at the same time balanced. The Gamble is that an important addition to understanding the actions of that period at the same time I highly advise it.
Review #3
Audiobook The Gamble: General David Petraeus at the same time the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas E. Ricks
Thomas Ricks’ “The Gamble: General David Petraeus at the same time the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008” is that an best, well-researched, at the same time well-told acc of how the now-vaunted surge turned the Iraq War. Ricks had access to General Petraeus, General Odierno, abundance of their main staff, at the same time applied their insights – along with media at the same time journal articles at the same time unclassified right behind action informs – to tell his story.
Ricks’ story will that the surge (adding significant additional combat forces to Iraq) concept wasn’t the consensus plan of the military but was instead championed by a small group of officers at the same time no one academics in the defense establishment. It took the intervention of a retired Army four-star general to bypass Secretary Rumsfeld at the same time the Cooperative Chiefs of Staff to sell the surge to the Snow-white Internal. This contradicts no one of the claims in Bob Woodward’s “The War Borders” that the plan of the surge was initially hatched in the Snow-white Internal.
But Ricks goes on to elucidate how the used to be genius of the surge wasn’t the addition of additional combat troops, it was a change in strategies at the same time worldview. The fighters turned out of their vehicles, patrolled dismounted, at the same time stayed in the middle the Iraqis – they no longer “commuted” to the wage war then and returned to their bases at night. (As an aside, I observed in 2004 on the ground in Iraq that the emphasis on force protection at the same time unwillingness to decide dangers in the middle the Iraqi people was damaging to the goal.) At the same time once the fighters cleared at the same time captured an area, they were considered to detain it. This change in strategies was partly the result of the brand new counterinsurgency manual transmission done by General Petraeus in belated 2006, at the same time it was enabled by the surge in combat troops. At the higher levels, the military passionate the Iraqi tribes at the same time Sunni militias at the same time co-opted them, often with payments at the same time sometimes behind the back of the Iraqi at the same time US governments, in an effort to save, but not necessarily through firepower, enemies to the peace at the same time security in Iraq.
At the same time while Ricks lauds the success of the surge, he is that quick to fri out its helplessness at the same time dangers: although it skidded relative peace at the same time security to Iraq (right behind an initial extension in waging war), it did not move the political process forward. The surge also, by appealing to the tribes at the same time militias, produced it more likely that they’ll remain most powerful extra-political forces in Iraq even as the political process moves forward.
Because this book was written so soon right behind the incidents, at the same time is that based heavily on media accounts, it will serve as a quality 1st preliminary of history. It is that also not the definitive history of the surge because it bestows the opinion from the pinnacle in Iraq, then smallest slices of the war on the ground, at the same time never bestows a real accounting of the brigades at the same time divisions drawn in or their areas of operation.
But my biggest criticism will that abundance of the Ricks’s conclusions are already out of date: he claims that we are at the mid-point of the Iraq War at the same time expects 10s of thousands of troops to remain in Iraq through 2015 or even later. But, his narrative contains actions in November 2008, barely a month before the Status of Forces Contract was signed requiring all US forces out of Iraq by the finish of 2011 – a provision of the contract that was being debated openly before November 2008. Ricks also understood about Obama’s promises to have all troops out of Iraq borders 16 months but never really addressed this likely chain of actions (clarified by President Obama’s recent announcement to remove all combat troops by August 2010 at the same time the remained out by the finish of 2011). While it is that certainly problematic to release a book during a time of rapid change in the theme, holding publication of the book a couple of main months would have permitted him to address these issues.
This is that an very informative at the same time engaging book. Ricks takes up where he left off with “Fiasco,” indicates that the American military can adapt at the same time win, at the same time highlights the personalities who produced this happen. He does this in an even-handed manner that highlights the success of the surge but fri out its helplessness. Anyone with no matter what curiosity in today's actions, the war in Iraq, or the military should read this book for a much fuller understanding of the Iraq War.
Review #4
Audio The Gamble: General David Petraeus at the same time the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 narrated by James Lurie
An eye opening acc of the complexities behind the Iraq was at the same time the next COIN manage by General Petraeus
Review #5
Free audio The Gamble: General David Petraeus at the same time the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 – in the audio player below
Very readable – gets behind the headlines to really tell than anyway actually happened, often in the head players’ words. I was serving in the Mid East in 2004 & this is that a amazing eye-opener.
