Al-Anbar Awakening

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Al-Anbar Awakening by :

Download or read book Al-Anbar Awakening written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Confronting al Qaeda

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442264861
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Confronting al Qaeda by : Martha L. Cottam

Download or read book Confronting al Qaeda written by Martha L. Cottam and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-03-22 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on in-depth interviews with tribal Sheiks involved in the Awakening and their American military counterparts, Confronting al Qaeda is a study of decision-making processes and the political psychology of the Sunni Awakening in al Anbar. It traces the change in American military strategy that made the Awakening collaboration between the Sunni tribes and the U.S. forces possible. It explains how the evolution of the tribal leaders’ perspective and of the American military strategy led to defeat al Qaeda in al Anbar. The process of these changing mutual images is detailed as well as how the cooperation between groups led to further evolution of perceptions. Political and military realities urgently forced these perceptual and social identity shifts initially, but the process of cooperation and engagement accelerated these shifts through increasingly mutually beneficial cooperation and interaction during the battle with al Qaeda in Iraq.

Illusions of Victory

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190659440
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis Illusions of Victory by : Carter Malkasian

Download or read book Illusions of Victory written by Carter Malkasian and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-19 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the immediate aftermath of the 2007 "Surge" of American troops in Iraq, the defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in Anbar Province was widely hailed as one of America's signature victories. US Marines and soldiers fought for years there, in grinding battles such as Fallujah and Ramadi that define the experience of Iraq. Eventually, the fractious tribal sheiks in that province, with the help of American troops, united in an "Awakening" that dealt AQI a stunning defeat. The Awakening's success argued that the United States could intervene in a war-torn country and, with the right strategy, bring stability and peace. It seemed to exemplify snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. A decade later, the situation in Anbar Province is dramatically different. In 2014, much of Anbar fell to the AQI's successor organization, the Islamic State, which swept through the region with shocking ease. In Illusions of Victory, Carter Malkasian looks at the wreckage to explain why the Awakening's initial promise proved misleading and why victory was unsustainable. Malkasian begins by tracing the origins of the Awakening, then turns his attention to what happened in its wake. After the United States left, Iraq's Shi'a government sidelined Sunni leaders throughout the country. AQI, brought back to life as the Islamic State, expanded in northern and western Iraq and quickly found a receptive audience among marginalized Sunnis. In short order, the progress that had resulted from the Awakening fell apart. Malkasian draws many lessons from Anbar. Chief among them, the most stunning of victories may not last. The fact that the leading model of success fell apart severely damages the idea that the United States can send the military to a country for a few years and create lasting peace. Even the most successful example was bound to deeper social, sectarian, and religious forces insensitive to temporary boots on the ground. From today's perspective, rather than decisive success, Anbar exemplifies how intervention itself is a costly, long-term project. The most brilliant victory could not escape this wisdom.

The Marines Take Anbar

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Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612511414
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (125 download)

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Book Synopsis The Marines Take Anbar by : Robert Shultz

Download or read book The Marines Take Anbar written by Robert Shultz and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2013-03-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Marine Corps’ four-year campaign against al Qaeda in Anbar is a fight certain to take its place next to such legendary clashes as Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Chosin, and Khe Sanh. Its success, the author contends, constituted a major turning point in the Iraq War and helped alter the course of events and set the stage for the Surge in Baghdad a year later. This book brings to light all the decisive details of how the Marines, between 2004 and 2008, adapted and improvised as they applied the hard lessons of past mistakes. In March 2004, when part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) was deployed to Anbar Province in the heart of the Sunni triangle, the Marines quickly found themselves locked in a bloody test of wills with al Qaeda, and a burgeoning violent insurgency. By the spring of 2006, according to all accounts, enemy violence was skyrocketing, while predictions for any U.S. success were plummeting. But at that same time new counterinsurgency initiatives were put in place when I MEF returned for its second tour in Anbar, and the Marines began to gain control. By September 2008 the fight was over. Richard Shultz, a well-known author and international security studies expert, has thoroughly researched this subject. His book effectively argues the case for the Marines changing the course of the war at Anbar, which is contrary to the conventional wisdom that the Surge was the turning point."

Awakening Victory

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Publisher : Casemate
ISBN 13 : 1612000770
Total Pages : 471 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Awakening Victory by : Michael Silverman

Download or read book Awakening Victory written by Michael Silverman and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2011-10-10 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “instructive first-hand account of how Iraq’s insurgents were defeated” in the surge of 2007—written by a Combat Arms Battalion Commander who lived it (Publishers Weekly). In August 2006, the American war in Iraq was looking grim. Control of Al Anbar Province, the seat of the Sunni insurgency, was said to be irrevocably lost to the insurgents. Al Qaeda in Iraq had planted their flag in the provincial capital, Ramadi, declaring it the capital of their new “Islamic State of Iraq.” In January 2007, the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment, deployed to Ramadi, spearheading a surge that would become the D-Day of the Global War on Terror. By mid-summer 2007, attacks in the province were down ninety percent. As the “awakening” swept through Iraq, it brought about the best security situation since 2003. The 3rd Battalion was the only unit to participate in this campaign from start to finish. Moreover, many of the US successes came directly from this unit’s work. Awakening Victory tells the story of this incredible campaign through the eyes of the 3rd Battalion commander. It describes the battalion’s actions, including incidents previously unknown to the public, but it is not merely another war story. The author uses the actions of his battalion to describe a paradigm shift, moving from a war of bombs and bullets to one of partnership and ideas.

Fallujah Redux

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Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612511430
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (125 download)

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Book Synopsis Fallujah Redux by : Daniel R Green

Download or read book Fallujah Redux written by Daniel R Green and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fallujah Redux is the first book about the Fallujah Awakening written by Operation Iraqi Freedom military veterans who served there, providing a comprehensive account of the turning of Fallujah away from the al-Qaeda insurgency in 2007. The city of Fallujah will long be associated with some of the worst violence and brutality of the Iraq War. Initially occupied by U.S. forces in 2003, it eventually served as the headquarters for numerous insurgent groups operating west of Baghdad, including al-Qaeda in Iraq and its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, until forcibly retaken at the end of 2004. Once the city was finally cleared, U.S. forces settled into the routine of waging a low-intensity warfare campaign against insurgent forces and trying to set the conditions for Iraqi government control. Even though U.S. forces were winning tactically, they struggled with a population that still strongly supported the insurgency. By the middle of 2007, four years after the initial invasion of Iraq, the city of Fallujah and its surrounding countryside were still mired in a seemingly intractable insurgency. As Anbar Province’s tribes began to turn against al-Qaeda, Fallujah’s residents were waiting for the movement to push eastward to help them eliminate al-Qaeda but they needed the help of U.S. forces. A concerted pacification campaign, in coordination with tribal efforts, was implemented by U.S. and Iraqi security forces that fundamentally altered local security conditions in Fallujah. This book describes the campaign that turned Fallujah from a perennial insurgent hotspot to an example of what can be achieved by the right combination of leadership and perseverance. Many books have told of the major battles in Fallujah—this book tells the rest of the story that never made the news.

Saber's Edge

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Publisher : UPNE
ISBN 13 : 1584659548
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (846 download)

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Book Synopsis Saber's Edge by : Thomas A. Middleton

Download or read book Saber's Edge written by Thomas A. Middleton and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A combat medic reconciles his roles as a soldier, healer, and man of faith in a time of war

The Sheriff of Ramadi

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Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612514189
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (125 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sheriff of Ramadi by : Dick Couch

Download or read book The Sheriff of Ramadi written by Dick Couch and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2013-07-10 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ground-breaking book, best-selling author and former U.S. Navy SEAL Dick Couch reports on the actions of the SEAL Task Unit during the Battle of Ramadi in Iraq s al-Anbar Province between 2005 and 2007. When he began his research, the author thought he would be writing about the SEALs courage in the face of a losing cause. Instead, he discovered a startling success story whose importance has gone unrecognized in the war against al-Qaeda. Couch argues that the lessons of Ramadi, with SEALs fighting alongside regular forces in an urban war zone, call for using this strategy more widely. One of the most significant military engagements in the global war against terrorism since 9/11 and the most sustained and vicious engagement ever fought by SEALs, the Battle of Ramadi demonstrates both their code of brotherhood and ability to adapt in an urban battle space, which Couch identifies as the keys to the SEALs success on the battlefield. The story of PO2 Michael Monsoor, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the battle, is a compelling example of their extraordinary brotherhood. First published in hardcover in 2008, the book is now available in paperback for the first time.

A Chance in Hell

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Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 142995051X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis A Chance in Hell by : Jim Michaels

Download or read book A Chance in Hell written by Jim Michaels and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jim Michaels's A Chance in Hell presents the riveting account of how one brigade turned Iraq's most violent city into a model of stability. Colonel Sean MacFarland arrived in Iraq's deadliest city with simple instructions: pacify Ramadi without destroying it. The odds were against him from the start. By 2006, insurgents roamed freely in many parts of the city in open defiance of Iraq's U.S.-backed government. Al-Qaeda had boldly declared Ramadi its capital. Even the U.S. military acknowledged that the province would be the last to be pacified. MacFarland laid out a bold plan. His soldiers would take on the insurgents in their own backyard. He set up combat outposts in the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. Snipers roamed the back alleys, killing al-Qaeda leaders and terrorist cells. U.S. tanks rumbled down the streets, firing point-blank into buildings occupied by insurgents. MacFarland's brigade engaged in some of the bloodiest street fighting of the war. Casualties on both sides mounted. Al-Qaeda wasn't going to give up easily--Ramadi was too important. MacFarland wasn't going to back down, either. A Chance in Hell tells how a handful of men turned the tide of war at a time when it appeared all hope was lost.

A Soldier's Dream

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101188014
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis A Soldier's Dream by : William Doyle

Download or read book A Soldier's Dream written by William Doyle and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For six months in 2006, a charismatic young U.S. Army captain and Arab linguist named Travis Patriquin unleashed a diplomatic and cultural charm offensive upon the Sunni Arab sheiks of Anbar province, the heart of darkness of the Iraqi insurgency. He galvanized American support for the “Sunni Awakening,” the tribal revolt against Al Qaeda that spread through the province and eventually across Iraq, a turning point that led to dramatically lower levels of violence in the country. The Awakening may not have succeeded without Patriquin, who was so beloved by Iraqis that they adopted him into their tribes and loved him as a brother. This is the true story of a man who loved Iraq, and a soldier who helped engineer the turning point of the Iraq War. It is the story of America’s T.E. Lawrence—Travis Patriquin.

Rage Company

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781684425914
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (259 download)

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Book Synopsis Rage Company by : Thomas P Daly

Download or read book Rage Company written by Thomas P Daly and published by . This book was released on 2010-04 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One Marine's gripping story of the bloody battles, the Surge, and the Awakening of Sunni tribes that changed the tide in Iraq's Anbar province Seven minutes into the first patrol a firefight erupts. Quickly, the Marines of Rage Company became acquainted with the nature of counterinsurgency. Every day, more IEDs were planted than the Marines could clear. They avoided taking the same route twice, they never walked out in the open, and they steered clear of roads that hadn't been ""swept"" in the last hour. They were in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and one of the deadliest cities in Iraq. In November 2006, then First Lieutenant Thomas Daly arrived as part of the ""surge"" in Ramadi, to take part in Operation Squeeze Play, a division-size effort to remove al Qaeda from Anbar province. In this powerful memoir, he describes the successful clearing of southern Ramadi's Second Officer's district, the Qatana, and the uprising of local citizens against al Qaeda on the eastern edge of the city (the result of an unlikely alliance between Daly's company and Thawar al Anbar). From the first patrol to the last in the spring of 2007, he takes you inside the daily successes and struggles of the operation and the stressful challenge of trying to discern who was a terrorist and who was a civilian. He tells the powerful and very human story of a people who want to free their country, yet have no basis on which to trust the American forces in helping them succeed. ""So vivid are Daly's descriptions that the reader can sense the tipping point and can anticipate that al Qaeda in Iraq will strike back savagely. What a tale Daly tells! You won't read this in textbook theories about counterinsurgency."" --Bing West, author and retired Marine general, from his foreword to Rage Company ""Rage Company will stand apart from the many Iraq memoirs and histories already published."" --Nathaniel Fick, author of the New York Times bestseller, One Bullet Away ""Tom Daly captures the uncertainty, chaos, fog and friction inherent in all combat. . . . In particular, he provides an inside, street-level look at the emergence of the Anbar Awakening. . . . Definitely belongs on the bookshelves of professionals."" --T. X. Hammes, Colonel, USMC (Ret) author of The Sling and the Stone A Marine's personal story of fighting an insurgency and overcoming a siege mentality to work with Iraqis to rout a common enemy, Al Qaeda Captain Daly's unique perception of the battlefield has been shaped while operating with units of the United States Army, Navy SEALs, ANGLICO (Air, Naval Gunfire Liaison Company), Iraqi Army and Police Units, and anti-Al Qaeda guerrillas Filled with on-the-ground details and insights on military operations and strategy, Rage Company cements the accurate history of the unlikely alliance that redirected the Iraq War and set the course for operations in the future.

Fallujah Awakens

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Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612511295
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (125 download)

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Book Synopsis Fallujah Awakens by : Bill Ardolino

Download or read book Fallujah Awakens written by Bill Ardolino and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cradle of an insurgency that plunged Iraq into years of chaos and bloodshed, Fallujah conjures up images of the brutal house-to-house fighting that occurred during the 2004 U.S. invasion of the iconic city. But attacks in the area actually peaked two years later, when American and Iraqi government forces struggled with a reinvigorated insurgency and the prospect of premature withdrawal by U.S. forces. Fallujah Awakens tells the story of the remarkable turnaround that followed. Journalist Bill Ardolino explains how local tribal leaders and U.S. Marines forged a surprising alliance that helped secure the famous battleground. It is one of the few books to recount events from both American and Iraqi perspectives. Based on more than 120 interviews with Iraqis and U.S. Marines, Ardolino describes how a company of reservists, led by a medical equipment sales manager from Michigan, succeeded where previous efforts had stalled. Circumstance combined with smart, charismatic leadership enabled Americans to build relationships with members of a Sunni tribe—once written off as dangerous and intractable— who pushed al Qaeda and other insurgents from their notoriously rebellious area. Accidental killings, intertribal rivalries, insurgents, and intrigue all conspired to undo the tenuous alliance forged between the Americans and tribesmen on Fallujah’s Peninsula. But the partnership was cemented after a Marine commander’s risky decision to welcome nearly 100 injured civilians onto a secure American facility after a ruthless chemical attack by al Qaeda. The book’s gripping storyline will appeal to readers of historical nonfiction. Its exhaustive documentation will prove valuable to military students, analysts, and historians and will help policy makers better understand what is possible in counterinsurgency. Photographs and maps further enhance the reader’s understanding of everything from tribal dynamics to the geography of firefights.

The Snake Eaters

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451655967
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis The Snake Eaters by : Owen West

Download or read book The Snake Eaters written by Owen West and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documents the achievements of a team of reservists and National Guardsmen who built an Iraqi battalion and fought side by side with the first Iraqi soldiers granted independent battle space.

U.S. Marines in Battle

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781782667018
Total Pages : 84 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (67 download)

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Book Synopsis U.S. Marines in Battle by : Timothy S. McWilliams

Download or read book U.S. Marines in Battle written by Timothy S. McWilliams and published by . This book was released on 2014-07-23 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of the Second Battle of Fallujah, also known as Operation Al-Fajr and Operation Phantom Fury. Over the course of November and December 2004, the I Marine Expeditionary Force conducted a grueling campaign to clear the city of Fallujah of insurgents and end its use as a base for the anticoalition insurgency in western Iraq. The battle involved units from the Marine Corps, Army, and Iraqi military and constituted one of the largest engagements of the Iraq War. The study is based on interviews conducted by Marine Corps History Division field historians of battle participants and archival material. The book will be of primary interest to Marines, other service members, policy makers, and the faculty and students at the service schools and academies. Historians, veterans, high school through univeristy history departments and students as well as libraries may be interested in this book as well. With full color maps and photographs.

The Endgame

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Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307388948
Total Pages : 834 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The Endgame by : Michael R. Gordon

Download or read book The Endgame written by Michael R. Gordon and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Wall Street Journal Best Nonfiction Book of 2012 In this follow-up to their national bestseller Cobra II, Michael Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor deftly piece together the story of the most widely reported but least understood war in American history. This stunning account of the political and military struggle between American, Iraqi, and Iranian forces brings together vivid reporting of diplomatic intrigue and gripping accounts of the blow-by-blow fighting that lasted nearly a decade. Informed by brilliant research, classified documents, and extensive interviews with key figures—including everyone from the intelligence community to Sunni and Shi’ite leaders and former insurgents to senior Iraqi military officers—The Endgame presents a riveting chronicle of the occupation of Iraq to the withdrawal of American troops that is sure to remain the essential account of the war for years to come.

The Gamble

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101192062
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gamble by : Thomas E. Ricks

Download or read book The Gamble written by Thomas E. Ricks and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-01-06 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiasco, Thomas E. Ricks’s #1 New York Times bestseller, transformed the political dialogue on the war in Iraq—The Gamble is the next news breaking installment Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began. Since early 2007 a new military order has directed American strategy. Some top U.S. officials now in Iraq actually opposed the 2003 invasion, and almost all are severely critical of how the war was fought from then through 2006. At the core of the story is General David Petraeus, a military intellectual who has gathered around him an unprecedented number of officers with both combat experience and Ph.D.s. Underscoring his new and unorthodox approach, three of his key advisers are quirky foreigners—an Australian infantryman-turned- anthropologist, an antimilitary British woman who is an expert in the Middle East, and a Mennonite-educated Palestinian pacifist. The Gamble offers news-breaking account, revealing behind-the-scenes disagreements between top commanders. We learn that almost every single officer in the chain of command fought the surge. Many of Petraeus’s closest advisers went to Iraq extremely pessimistic, doubting that the surge would have any effect, and his own boss was so skeptical that he dispatched an admiral to Baghdad in the summer of 2007 to come up with a strategy to replace Petraeus’s. That same boss later flew to Iraq to try to talk Petraeus out of his planned congressional testimony. The Gamble examines the congressional hearings through the eyes of Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and their views of the questions posed by the 2008 presidential candidates. For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years—and that that outcome is a best case scenario. His stunning conclusion, stated in the last line of the book, is that “the events for which the Iraq war will be remembered by us and by the world have not yet happened.”

Innovation, Transformation, and War

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Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804777489
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Innovation, Transformation, and War by : James Russell

Download or read book Innovation, Transformation, and War written by James Russell and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within a year of President George W. Bush announcing the end of major combat operations in Iraq in May 2003, dozens of attacks by insurgents had claimed hundreds of civilian and military lives. Through 2004 and 2005, accounts from returning veterans presaged an unfolding strategic debacle—potentially made worse by U.S. tactics being focused on extending conventionally oriented military operations rather than on adapting to the insurgency. By 2007, however, a sea change had taken place, and some U.S. units were integrating counterinsurgency tactics and full-spectrum operations to great effect. In the main, the government and the media cited three factors for having turned the tide on the battlefield: the promulgation of a new joint counterinsurgency doctrine, the "surge" in troop numbers, and the appointment of General David Petraeus as senior military commander. James Russell, however, contends that local security had already improved greatly in Anbar and Ninewah between 2005 and 2007 thanks to the innovative actions of brigade and company commanders—evidenced most notably in the turning of tribal leaders against Al Qaeda. In Innovation, Transformation, and War, he goes behind the headlines to reveal—through extensive field research and face-to-face interviews with military and civilian personnel of all ranks—how a group of Army and Marine Corps units successfully innovated in an unprecedented way: from the bottom up as well as from the top down. In the process they transformed themselves from organizations structured and trained for conventional military operations into ones with a unique array of capabilities for a full spectrum of combat operations. As well as telling an inspiring story, this book will be an invaluable reference for anyone tasked with driving innovation in any kind of complex organization.