Fiasco by Thomas E Ricks Available in Audio Book

This is a "must read" book for any voter in the USA. Ricks takes us through the run up to the war, the early occupation (or CPA), and the ongoing occupation. It is not a pretty picture and will scare the daylights out of anybody who thinks about what is going on. Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority could rightly be labeled "war criminals." Just read chapter 8 if nothing else. They went in and dismantled everything, institutions and organizations, that might have kept Iraq from imploding after "Mission Accomplished." Tom Ricks is the Military Correspondent for the Washington Post. He is a superb writer and knows all the players. He has spent a lot of time in Iraq both researching the book and as a war correspondent. In the interest of full disclosure, I know Tom a little bit. I have asked him about reaction to the book and specifically if he had been challenged on any of the subject matter. His reply? "Not once on anything." Some excerpts that I found particularly interesting: On troop levels going in:

The debate was far more than a technical squabble about troop numbers. Andrew Bacevich observed that Shinseki's comments amounted to a broad attack on Wolfowitz's entire approach to the Middle East. "Given that the requisite additional troops simply did not exist, Shinseki was implicitly arguing that the U.S. armed services were inadequate for the enterprise;' Bacevich wrote...

On the occupation:

Concern about a longterm occupation-that was discounted. The people around the president were so, frankly, intellectually arrogant;' this general continued. "They knew that postwar Iraq would be easy and would be a catalyst for change in the Middle East. They were making simplistic assumptions and refused to put them to the test. It's the vice president, and the secretary of defense, with the knowledge of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the vice chairman. They did it because they already had the answer, and they wouldn't subject their hypothesis to examination. These are educated men, they are smart men. But they are not wise men."

On dissolving the Iraqi military:

Central Command was taken aback by the announcement. "We were surprised at the dissolution of the army;' said Maj. Gen. Renuart, adding mildly, "so that gave us a challenge." It is a verbal tic of the u.s. military that officers tend to say challenge when they mean problem.[ed] Agoglia, working as the military liaison to Bremer, told his boss, "You guys just blindsided Centcom." That was the day, he recalled, "that we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and created an insurgency."

If you want to understand what has happened in Iraq read this book. Pair it with Bob Woodwards's "State of Denial" and you get a very good picture of the Fiasco that is the Iraq war.