Overview

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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9780141028507

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Reviews

Compelling and well-researched . . . Fiasco pulls no punches. . . . News on Iraq usually comes with blaring headlines, but Ricks' work allows us to fit seemingly disparate events into an overall pattern. ( The Washington Post ) It is not an exaggeration, or at least not much of one, to say that with his new book, Fiasco , Thomas Ricks has changed the debate over Iraq. . . . It may leave your hand shaking just a bit when you finish and put it down. (Slate.com) Fiasco is not a screed but a well-researched, strongly written account of the miscues that led from shock-and-awe to rampant sectarian strife. ( Los Angeles Times ) A comprehensive and illuminating portrait of the willful blindness of the Bush administration to Iraqi realities. ( The New York Times Book Review ) The title of this devastating new book about the American war in Iraq says it all. . . . Absolutely essential reading . . . [This] volume gives the reader a lucid, tough-minded overview of this tragic enterprise that stands apart from earlier assessments in terms of simple coherence and scope. (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times ) aStaggeringly vivid and persuasive . . . absolutely essential reading.a aMichiko Kakutani, The New York Times aThe best account yet of the entire war.a a Vanity Fair Staggeringly vivid and persuasive . . . absolutely essential reading. -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times The best account yet of the entire war. - Vanity Fair

Compelling and well-researched . . . Fiasco pulls no punches. . . . News on Iraq usually comes with blaring headlines, but Ricks' work allows us to fit seemingly disparate events into an overall pattern. ( The Washington Post )

Compelling and well-researched . . . Fiasco pulls no punches. . . . News on Iraq usually comes with blaring headlines, but Ricks' work allows us to fit seemingly disparate events into an overall pattern. ( The Washington Post ) It is not an exaggeration, or at least not much of one, to say that with his new book, Fiasco , Thomas Ricks has changed the debate over Iraq. . . . It may leave your hand shaking just a bit when you finish and put it down. (Slate.com) Fiasco is not a screed but a well-researched, strongly written account of the miscues that led from shock-and-awe to rampant sectarian strife. ( Los Angeles Times ) A comprehensive and illuminating portrait of the willful blindness of the Bush administration to Iraqi realities. ( The New York Times Book Review ) The title of this devastating new book about the American war in Iraq says it all. . . . Absolutely essential reading . . . [This] volume gives the reader a lucid, tough-minded overview of this tragic enterprise that stands apart from earlier assessments in terms of simple coherence and scope. (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times ) Staggeringly vivid and persuasive . . . absolutely essential reading. -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times The best account yet of the entire war. - Vanity Fair aStaggeringly vivid and persuasive . . . absolutely essential reading.a aMichiko Kakutani, The New York Times aThe best account yet of the entire war.a a Vanity Fair

Author Information

Thomas E. Ricks is the Washington Post's senior Pentagon correspondent. Until the end of 1999 he had covered the US military for The Wall Street Journal, where he was a reporter for seventeen years. He has been a member of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes for national reporting. Thomas E. Ricks has lived in Afghanistan and in Hong Kong and is the author of Making the Corps and A Soldier's Duty.

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