The Gamble - General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008
By Thomas E. Ricks

Thomas E. Ricks's Fiasco was acclaimed on all sides of the political spectrum as the definitive account of the Iraq invasion. The Gamble is his next shocking instalment, drawing on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage. It documents the inside story of the war since late 2005, examining how the military was forced to abandon its initial plans and a very different war began - one with no prospect of ending anytime soon. In 2005 the forces fighting in Iraq were heading for defeat. Then, almost at the last minute, a few insiders managed to persuade the president to adopt a new strategy built around protecting the Iraqi people. At the heart of this approach is General David Petraeus, a military intellectual who has gathered around him a new breed of officer, and unorthodox advisers including an Australian infantryman turned anthropologist, an anti-military British woman who is an expert in the Middle East and a Mennonite-educated Palestinian pacifist. Now most of the top US officials in Iraq are severely critical of how the war was originally fought. But does this necessarily mean things are better? The Gamble reveals behind the scenes disagreements between top commanders and the in-fighting that nearly destroyed this new military direction. But most importantly, we learn how this revamped war has led to improved security but not to the envisioned 'victory' of a stable democracy allied with the United States. For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the conflict indefinitely. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years - and that outcome is a best-case scenario. His frightening conclusion is that 'the events for which the Iraq war will be remembered by us and by the world have not yet happened.'