The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Hardcover

Ricks, Thomas E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594201978 ISBN 13: 9781594201974

Publisher: Penguin Pr, 2009

Synopsis

Draws on extensive interviews with top officers in Iraq to document the war as it has unfolded in recent years, placing a focus on the unorthodox strategies of General David Petraeus, from his work with foreign advisors to the ways in which his officers disagreed with key decisions. 250,000 first printing.

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Based on unprecedented real-time access to the military's entire chain of command, The Gamble is the definitive account of the insurgency within the US military that led to a radical shift in America's strategy in Iraq - and the bloody implementation of that strategy on the ground.

In his international bestseller Fiasco, Thomas E. Ricks gave us the definitive reckoning with what went so wrong in Iraq. The story The Gamble tells is how, when the war was at its darkest hour, a group of dissident junior commanders and their civilian allies did an end run around their superiors in the military establishment and seized control of the war. The result was "the Surge," one of the American military's boldest strategic gambles since the landings at Inchon.

General David Petraeus gave military expert Thomas E. Ricks extraordinary privileged access to himself and his team during the past two years, and the result is a chronicle of astonishing vividness and analytical depth. It is the story of military leadership in the crucible of war, under excruciating political pressure at home. It is also the story of the soldiers who executed the strategy out in the field. Ricks concludes that the war likely will last for many years to come - and that it will not be remembered for the reasons we think.

Thomas E. Ricks is the Washington Post's senior Pentagon correspondent, where he has covered the U.S. military since 2000. A member of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams for national reporting, he has reported on U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iraq.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Pr
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1594201978
• ISBN 13: 9781594201974
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 394